


Devil's Deal

by Haunted_Moonlight



Series: Devil's Deal [1]
Category: ChaoticMonki | Cryaotic - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF, Youtube RPF, Youtubers, jacksepticeye, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: All will be revealed in time, Antisepticeye later on, Ao Oni-Inspired, Damn monsters, Gen, HetaOni-Inspired, I am become terrible, Intense friendships, Maybe even other darks?, No knowledge of either of those required, Survival Horror, character torment, destroyer of feels, don't even worry about it, oh my
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2018-09-15 02:25:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 60
Words: 247,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9214760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haunted_Moonlight/pseuds/Haunted_Moonlight
Summary: Another charity livestream, another opportunity to reunite and dick around. This time with some new faces, with spooks and pranks intended in the spirit of Halloween! Or at least, that was the plan. Perhaps a notorious haunted mansion wasn't the best place to decide on for filming it...





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so uh, this is my first youtuber fic (that I've actually posted anyways). If you've seen or played the game Ao Oni and/or HetaOni, this might ring a bell of familiarity. If not? Don't even worry about it! That just puts you in the same seat as the majority of characters, as a proper story should. Just sit back, have a read and watch the character drama unfold. Please send feedback, I'd like to hear what you guys think, and I'm up for some weapon suggestions for each person before I get too far into this thing.

“We need to take our chance while we still have it,” the American on the sofa stressed. “If we don’t-”

The green-haired man shook his head as his hands idly fidgeted with the book, watching the other man finish up tying the bandage. “We can’t yet,” he argued. “I want to. _Believe me,_ I want to. But we still need to meet up with Felix and Ken-”

“Yeah, um, about that-”

Blue eyes stared at the man, slowly widening in realization. The color quickly drained from cheeks that had reddened from running and exhaustion. The Irishman didn’t even have to ask for a continuation of that sentence; the way the other man had to look away, swallowing hard while blinking back tears and all the while struggling under the immense effort of maintaining his composure-at least until they made it out of this hellhole.

“No…” the Irishman whispered when he’d finally managed to reattach his jaw, shaking his head fervently. “I thought-I thought you said they were hiding upstairs-”

“Yeah, uh, well they _were-_ ” the American replied, unable to keep his voice from breaking in spite of all attempts to do otherwise.

“It _found_ them?!” The Irishman stared at his companion for several long moments as silence weighed on them like a smothering blanket, sucking all the oxygen out of the room. All the American could do was nod to avoid just outright losing it, and briefly the Irishman wondered how he’d even managed up to this point. Then again, considering that they’d lost so many others throughout this nightmare-

Still, that didn’t dull the pain at all, and he wasn’t able to remain still anymore. Before he himself even realized, the book was on the table and he stood up to pace a couple rounds before punching the wall next to him. “Goddammit!”

“Jack-!” the American reprimanded before sucking in another breath and shaking his head. “Shut up or it’s going to hear you. Hear _us._ ”

The Irishman-Jack-pursed his lips for a moment before going over to the sofa on the other side of the coffee table and plopping down, elbows resting on his knees as he leaned forward almost double with his face in his hands. Focus on his breathing. That’s what he needed to do, just focus on his breathing before he did anything else stupid. Still, it was shaky, he could feel his whole body shaking from the shock and anger and sorrow.

Silence fell over the room again before the American finally broke it with soft tones. “Sorry. I’m just-sorry-”

“No, you don’t even need to be, Mark,” Jack cut off quietly, but his words were barely audible for once.

Mark stared at Jack for several long moments with a frown before finally sighing and looking away again. “It’s just us now. We _have_ to get out of here. If not for ourselves, then-”

“Yeah.” Jack swallowed the hard lump that had formed in his throat, trying to maintain his composure now as well. The relief and joy at the idea of actually leaving this place had long-since been sobered and tainted with the reality of recent events and the things expected to follow their escape in the near-future. They were the only ones that knew what happened to eight other people. Good people that thousands, even millions of people cared about. And they were going to have to break the news to their loved ones, their friends, their families, their communities-

The thought alone was overwhelming.

Good god, how had Mark done it up to this point?

Jack drew in another shaky breath as he finished, “For the people lost in here. For everyone.” Silence fell over the place again as Mark simply gave a nod of approval and leaned back on the sofa he semi-laid on, pressing his hands to his face for a long while before finally dragging them back down. Finally he sat up again, drawing in another deep breath and swinging himself around to face forward, the bridge of his nose crinkling for a split second in a glimmer of pain from his leg. The look on his face had gone back to serious, as if dragging his hands down it had helped to wipe away the hollowing pain of loss-or rather, more like they’d pulled the required mask back down for getting the job done.

“We can start worrying about all of that once we’re out of here,” he said quietly although wearily, in spite of his intent demeanor. “Does the book say anything else about getting out? Any further puzzles or traps?”

They both knew they were probably screwed if either of the questions were affirmative. There were so many of the handwritten pages written in Italian for some reason. Not all, but a lot. Felix had been managing to translate bits and pieces here and there (although roughly) thanks to practice from Marzia. Cry had been solving most of the puzzles up to this point. But now-

“Ah-” Jack pulled in one final stabilizing breath before lifting his head and reaching forward to pull the book back over. He opened it, flipping through the pages. This book was so odd. If they’d been reading it right, it was like one part how-to guide for getting out of this house, one-part journal. And there was so many parts that were crossed out and notes added in, almost as if the same guy kept adding and/or correcting things in hindsight again and again. And those were just the blank pages that had been scribbled on, with rapid writing and drawings scrawled across them. The printed pages were a lot simpler, those were actually in English, but they all seemed to be full of nonsense. Like some of the more journal-oriented handwritten pages, they seemed to be rambling on about time and clock-turning and memory. Inside the back cover there was an intricately-inscribed clock with little moveable handles, like one might find on a game spinner. Oddly stained with blood, but they’d tried to ignore that.

In spite of its weirdness and being a hassle to cart around though, it actually _had_ proven to be helpful up to this point. Hell, they probably wouldn’t have gotten the key to the front door without it, so…

As his blue eyes skimmed over the words, he shook his head and finally looked back up at the American. “No,” he replied. “I think now that we have the key, we can just run right on out.”

“Thank god,” Mark muttered, leaning back a slight bit as he let out a relieved sigh. “So just one more sprint down the hall. We can do that.”

“ _Can_ you?” Jack questioned, eyeing Mark’s bandaged leg worriedly. “We barely even managed to get you in here."

“I think it’s a bit better now that it’s all bandaged up,” Mark assured. “It’s not losing tons of blood anymore, at any rate.”

“I still think we should’ve stitched it up,” Jack remarked quietly.

“With what?” Mark shook his head. “We can worry about that once we’re out of here. As soon as we’ve cleared this place, we can call-what's the UK version of 911?"

“999, same as Ireland. And that’s assuming we can even make it to an area that has signal,” Jack replied. He sighed. “How do we know that thing isn’t going to follow us out? Chase us out the gate and through the woods?”

“We don’t,” Mark replied honestly. “But it’s still worth a try. We’ll probably stand a much better chance out there than in here and…” He cast a grim glance towards the door that had been locked and barred shut with a chair jammed under the knob. “Well. I don’t know about you, but if we don’t make it, if _I_ don’t make it-I would much rather bite it out there than in here. Wouldn’t you?”

Jack stared at Mark for several long moments, heart skipping a beat at the mildly-panicked thought of losing yet another one of his friends-the _last_ of his friends in here, in fact-but shoved it out of his mind as he looked back down at the book. His eyes didn’t register any of the scrawlings on the page, however, as his mind was too busy stressing and reassuring him that the situation Mark just posed was purely hypothetical. So finally he replied in quiet relent, “...I don’t wanna die in here.”

Mark drew in a breath and nodded. He’d noticed the Irishman’s breath catch, his body tense, but he wasn’t going to draw any attention to it. Instead he cast one final look around the large room. At first glance, this mansion would probably be fairly decent to live in, if not showing the telltale dusty and run-down signs of being abandoned for many years. It was cunning like that, drawing in the curious and eating them alive via the monster that roamed the halls. This room in particular: first floor, end of the right wing, rather large. They were currently in the lounge area of it, but just to his right there was a full kitchen separated off from the rest of the room only by countertop. Beyond the intentions of using this room as the main base of their livestream, they hadn’t found too much of use in here-or at least, not so much in the way of escaping or defending themselves anyway. There wasn’t even really much in the way of hiding places in this room, but they’d both concluded it’d be better than the library as far as that went. Plus they’d probably have more stuff to pick through in terms of medical supplies, as basic as that was.

Yeah. Just one more long sprint to the door and they would hopefully be home free-or at least breathing fresh air once more before they were killed.

To be honest, both sounded like the most optimal choices in comparison to just staying in here and being picked off like the others.

With a grimace, Mark slowly rose to his feet, instinctively putting more weight on his right foot than his left. Jack quickly got up to follow his movements, gathering up the book under one arm.

“Oh, careful, careful-” Jack cautioned, quickly moving to his side to help steady him.

“Thanks-” Mark replied, leaning a little of his weight on the shorter man as he regained his bearings. Eyeing the door, he asked, “Alright, so how are we gonna do this?”

Jack looked over at the door, thinking for a moment. “C’mon-” he finally said, helping Mark over to the door. “Alright, so uh...Imma gonna open the door. You just be ready to run.” He eyed Mark for a few seconds, uncertain. “You _are_ gonna be able to move on your own, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I think so, just not as fast,” Mark confessed. “And don’t even think about having second thoughts about this. The only reason that _thing_ hasn’t busted in here is because it hasn’t found us yet. I’m sure that lock and chair won’t do too much at this point, not with how much stronger it’s gotten.”

Jack hesitated, frowning and looking away. “Ohhh…” he said, the word drawn out from his tone being strung with uncertainty. “Okay.”

“As soon as that door is open, we run as fast as we can, straight to the front door. No stopping for absolutely anything.” Mark eyed Jack, expression firm. “I mean it, Jack.”

“Yeah, yeah, I-” Jack shifted uncomfortably, swallowing. “I got it.”

Mark nodded. “Any last words before we get going? Or in case this gets fucked up like all our other past attempts?”

Jack reached back to rub the back of his neck as he stepped back. “Uh-” To Mark’s surprise, Jack actually cracked some semblance of a weak smile, even if it didn’t really reach his eyes. “I guess- Well. Shit." He shook his head. "I guess we've been in here long enough, and we've played enough horror games together and otherwise. We know what to look out for and how any and all cliches are gonna play out. So between the two of us, I'm actually pretty confident that we're both gonna make it outta here with all of our limbs intact.” He paused. "And if we don't, there's going to be shitload of cursing and desire to hit the restart button."

Mark stared for a few long moments, and from the moment his words hit the air, Jack was already regretting them. They were a little bizarre and more than a little stupid, especially considering the very real circumstances they were in. In fairness, there probably was a little bit of disassociation to help him cope, and it really was the closest thing he could manage to relate all of this to: some kind of ultra-realistic horror game, but that didn't mean it was very appropriate. Considering all that had happened leading up to this point, in fact, he probably just crossed a line with that bit of stupid. Just as he winced and was about to apologize-

He saw Mark shaking. A light chuckle, then a full laugh that left Jack staring at first, but then chuckling along with also. Even when the laughter was sad, it was still somewhat infectious, especially in the face of high-octane stress.

“Is it sad that I've actually thought about that several times since everything went to hell?” Mark finally replied when his laughter had died down a bit, grinning to Jack. The grin was still laden with sadness but...it was good to hear a laugh and to see a smile after all the horrors they endured.

“Oh hell no,” Jack replied, returning the sad smile with one of his own. "Great minds think alike, I guess. Or stupid ones."

“Stupidly desperate ones that play way too many video games." Mark shook his head, reaching up to scratch it and ruffling his hair a bit in the process. "Well, uh-Jack? If we don’t make it, then…” He thought for a moment. “It’s been a real blast working with you, and in spite of whatever Youtube drama-”

“Community craziness,” Jack muttered. "Work schedules."

“Community craziness, work-all that-” Mark agreed, nodding. “In spite of everything that’s happened, you’re a really great friend. And...I wish you the very best in everything you do.”

Jack swallowed, trying to shove the nerves back down. Why was he suddenly getting a sinking feeling? It had to have been Mark’s words, they all sounded so...final.

“Jesus, you need to stop talking,” Jack muttered, shaking his head as he moved the chair. “We’re _both_ going to get through this. Shitty odds and injuries be damned.” He glanced over at his companion. “You’re sure you’ve got the key?”

“Ah-yeah-” Mark replied, pulling the key from his pocket and holding it up. Cracking a tiny smile again in spite of everything, he added, “C’mon, you know I wouldn’t lose it.”

“ _I_ would kill you if you lost it,” Jack huffed, putting his fingers on the lock. Sucking in a deep breath, he glanced back at Mark. “Are you ready? You’re sure you don’t need my help, uhm-hobbling or anything?”

“Yeah, no, I got it, don’t worry,” Mark replied. “I managed to get over here pretty decently enough. I think I can make it just down the hall.”

“If we can make it there quietly enough, maybe we won’t even have to run too much at all,” Jack noted softly.

“I’m not trusting our luck enough for that to happen,” Mark replied in a matching tone that was laced with weariness. “Let’s just run and hope for the best.”

“Alright. Are you ready?” Jack questioned, and as he did he could gradually feel the nerves creeping in more and more, the adrenaline already starting to rush through his veins.

“Yeah, Jack, just open the damn door already,” Mark replied, the annoyance in his tone more mocking than anything.

Jack nodded and twisted the lock, yanking the door open. Before Mark could stop him, the Irishman took a step out and peered around, then looked back at Mark. “It’s clear!” he whispered. “Go! Go!”

Mark didn’t even hesitate as he ran forward, slowed just slightly by his limp but the adrenaline clearly kicking in with him as well. He went pretty quickly for a guy with a freshly-injured leg, although Jack was already caught up to him as they rushed down the hall.

Past the library, past the staircase, turn left and there’s the door. The front door which they’d made so many attempts to bust down or unlock. That whole commotion which drew the thing to them that one time, when they lost Tyler and Ethan in the process of running away-

Oh god, try not to think about it.

Mark pulled the key from his pocket and jammed it into the lock, and both men held their breath, daring to hope against hope that this was it, this was the one. The key twisted and they heard a click. The two exchanged a look with wide eyes.

“Was that it?” Jack whispered, an edge of hope and excitement daring to creep into his voice for the first time in what felt like centuries.

Mark nodded and reached forward, grabbing the handle. It twisted, the door pulled open slightly with an old, unused _creak-_

Wait.

Why were they hearing two of that sound?

Slowly Jack turned to look at the staircase-

The thing was rushing straight towards them. Alien-esque, long-necked, gray-skinned, eyes large and almond-shaped and colored a downright _soulless_ black.

This was the thing that had killed their friends.

And now it was coming for them.

Before he could react, fingers suddenly wrapped around his arm and yanked him back hard, released, and before he knew what was happening he was stumbling, staggering but breathing fresh air, heavy raindrops pounding down upon his skin like cold bullets. He looked around wildly, trying to get a bearing on what the _hell_ just happened, but then he got a look at the doorway-

Just in time to see Mark’s face staring back at him, Mark's other hand gripping the partially-open door.

Time seemed to hang frozen in the air for what stretched on into forever as Jack could feel his blood turn to ice, unable to will himself to move from the shock and terror. “Mark…” Jack whispered, only managing to take the tiniest step forward. Mark tried giving him the tiniest of relieved smiles in return, but it was one that was shaky and hopeless, terrified and worn.

And then suddenly, as fingers burst from his chest and blossomed outward, that smile was dripping with blood.

Everything suddenly seemed to slam back into real time at that moment, faster it seemed, as Jack reached out for him and lunged forward. “MARK!” he screamed, but the older man was dragged back inside with the door slamming in the Irishman’s face, Jack’s fingertips just grazing the wood.

“No… Nononononononono-” Jack pleaded, grabbing the handle of the door in a desperate attempt to push it open again. Nothing, the damned thing was locked-!

“Goddammit! Mark!” _Crunch! Crash! Crack!_ The noises on the other side of the door were accompanied with horrific-sounding grunts and screaming that would’ve made him cringe had he heard it just over headphones from a character, nevermind from one of his good friends in real life. _“No...!”_

Something bright caught his eye, something that stood out in sharp contrast to the cobblestone doorstep and made him cease his attempts to get back inside, body freezing up. He stared at the crimson that seeped out from beneath the door, shaking. He couldn’t hear anything on the other side anymore. The torrent of rain drowned anything else out now, aside from his own panicked, ragged breathing.

Seeing the blood beginning to flow around and stain his own sneakers, he staggered back and stared back up at the mansion, still tightly gripping the book under one arm and shaking violently in shock as tears stung at his blue eyes and panic began to overwhelm him.

**_“MARK!”_ **


	2. Chapter 1

“Goddammit, I can’t believe everyone just took off like that,” Felix sighed as he made the turn and started uphill. “This thing is _tomorrow_. What the hell are they all thinking?”

“Eh, they’re probably just slacking,” Ethan piped up from the backseat he, Tyler and Jack were crammed in. “Or maybe they actually had plans?”

“They’re not allowed to have plans,” Felix countered. “Not tonight, anyway.”

“I’m sure we can get the rest of it set up if we all work together,” Mark reassured calmly from the passenger’s seat. “It’s not exactly our first rodeo, after all.”

“And look on the bright side, at least Marzia agreed to pick up the treats and stuff for us,” Ethan added.

“Is there any chance Emma and PJ can come by to give us a hand?” Mark questioned.

Felix shook his head. “No, they actually do have plans and they’re allowed to have them.” He shifted a bit in his seat. “Or at the very least, they told me in advance. I did let them know what was going on though; they’ll be meeting us a bit earlier than originally planned tomorrow to help us with anything else that doesn’t get covered tonight.”

“At least we have a headstart,” Tyler muttered, looking out the window, then back at his backseat companions. Ethan squeezed in the middle, Jack on the other side, staring out the window. He couldn’t blame him. This place certainly had a way with ambiance, at the very least. Looking back at Felix, he asked, “What did they say spooked them?”

Felix shook his head. “I don’t know man. Michael just sent me a text that he went back inside from the car after fifteen minutes and everyone else was gone, so he took off too. Part of me honestly thinks they’re just hiding to try and prank us early.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Mark agreed, shifting. “Although I’m almost kinda hoping it actually _is_ something legitimate. Considering we had to cancel dinner plans with Cry because of all this, and after all the convincing it took just to get him to come out here and meet with us-"

“Yeah. Yeah, I know," Felix interrupted, although his voice held a note of understanding and disappointment. He shrugged. "But hey, I sent him the address to this place so he can come over and help us set up, at least. Not exactly how I hoped to hang out with him, but I guess we’re gonna have to make do with whatever we can manage."

“Yeah,” Mark sighed. “And I guess we can use an extra set of hands if we can get them. I just feel bad because ‘hanging out’ somehow turned into recruiting and once again, work managed to get in the way of life.”

“We’ll make some time to hang out with him more between livestream sessions, maybe after,” Felix assured. “And hey, this is actually an activity we can all do together, so maybe it’ll help break the ice better. You know, make things slightly less awkward.”

“Maybe…” Mark conceded, although he still sounded somewhat uncertain. “Well. At least Team Edge and Ken actually _volunteered_ to help set up. You did send them the address, right?”

“Of course I sent them the address,” Felix replied, rolling his eyes. “I can be responsible every _once and awhile, Dad, gosh._ ”

The response elicited a chuckle from the other man, but then he shook his head and pulled his hands back through his hair with a sigh. “Ah, I do hope they at least managed to get some sleep on the plane. I warned them that they were really gonna need it, especially when they were cutting it so close. That jet lag’s a killer.”

“Tell me about it. Fifteen fucking hours on a plane is ridiculous. Your _time zone_ is ridiculous,” Felix noted. “Why didn’t Team Edge head out a couple of days earlier like you did?”

“It _was_ kinda short notice for them,” Mark pointed out. “They had to cram some to get enough videos ready before the trip. And Ken?”

“Ah, well he said similar,” Felix replied. “I mean, he got sooner notice just like everyone else in Revelmode, but he still ended up cramming some for videos. Plus Mary’s staying home with the baby for this one and he doesn’t want to spend too much time away from them.”

“I guess that’s understandable. Hey, fatherhood keeps a guy pretty busy,” Mark agreed. He was quiet for a moment, but then twisted a bit in his seat to glance back at Jack. “Hey Jack.”

The Irishman perked up, looking over and blinking a few times. “Hm?”

“Everything alright? You’re awfully quiet back there.”

“Heh. Yeah. I’m fine,” Jack replied, giving Mark a grin, although it seemed somewhat faded. He reached up to rub tired eyes, glasses shifting in the movement. “Ah, sorry. Those guys weren’t the only ones to cram with making videos at the last minute.” Pausing to look around at everyone, he added, “And you guys know I’m not always as loud in real life as I am on camera.” He chuckled. “C’mon, dudes, we’ve been over this.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you just-” Mark shook his head. “Nevermind.”

Jack smiled. “Guys, I’m _fine_ ,” he stressed. He nodded to the window. “Just getting a little bit nostalgic, I guess. I think the last time I was out in any woods was when I visited family on holiday.”

“Yeah, well, we’re gonna be inside the house most of the time,” Felix reminded, causing the Irishman to roll his eyes.

“I know, I know.”

“So what’s the story on this place?” Tyler asked, leaning forward.

“Uh-well I didn’t get the whole story,” Felix admitted. “I saved some links, but I kinda just skimmed-”

“Great planning,” Mark muttered.

“To be honest, I just pointed the place out because I thought it looked kinda creepy,” Jack confessed with a small chuckle, shifting a bit in his seat. "I didn't do a whole lot of reading either."

“I think Emma or PJ read over the details a bit more closely than I did? Than we did, apparently?" Felix agreed, glancing back at Jack in the rearview mirror. "One of them. Anyway. The gist of it, uh... It was like...something something owner went crazy, something something experiments, something something monster and disappearances on the grounds.”

“So essentially a creepypasta,” Tyler concluded.

Felix chuckled. “Essentially something like that, yeah.” He paused, then added, "Or a horror game ripoff or...something."

“In other words, we’re all going to Slendy’s house!” Ethan concluded with mock cheer.

“I hope not. Our cameras start effing up during the livestream and I’m gonna be pissed,” Felix countered, although a grin remained on his face. “Especially considering we’re probably gonna be setting up most of them ourselves.”

“So long as the rest of the team is actually there tomorrow to help with filming and stuff,” Mark said. “I can live with helping set up in the meantime.”

The car soon pulled up to a front gate and everyone was quiet for a moment as Felix put it into park, staring up at the building. It was huge and impressive and yet, in a way, almost intimidating. “Man, you guys really outdid yourselves,” Mark finally muttered as he stepped out of the car.

“Yeah. This isn’t just some house, it’s a mansion,” Ethan remarked as he slid out after Tyler.

Tyler glanced over at Felix. “How much did it cost to rent out this place?”

“Surprisingly not a whole lot; it’s been abandoned for a pretty long time, and the guy I talked to over the phone said he was giving us the ‘Ghosthunters Discount’. Not sure if he was actually joking,” Felix admitted with a shrug.

“Well, let’s just hope it’s clean inside, otherwise we’ve got a lot more work for us than originally planned,” Mark pointed out. “Did we bring any supplies for that just in case?”

“There should already be some inside,” Felix replied. Regardless, Jack had already stepped out of the car and was going around to the trunk.

“I’ll grab some just in case,” the Irishman assured, opening the trunk once it unlocked and grabbing a bucket.

“Yeah, you’re just trying to get out of carrying the heavy stuff,” Felix teased.

“Hey! Have you ever hauled a bucket full of cleaning supplies around? Shit gets heavy!” Jack shot back playfully.

Tyler rolled his eyes as he grabbed a few things from the trunk as well. “And what are you grabbing, Felix?”

“Oh, well you know. The gate key, of course,” Felix replied with a grin as he strolled forward and opened the gate. The metal gave a pained rusty creak as they were pulled open, causing Mark to shake his head.

“We’re sure this place is up to code?” he asked as he grabbed a few things as well and headed on through to the threshold.

“Probably wouldn’t have been able to rent it out if it wasn’t,” Felix replied, watching as Tyler passed him to follow, then Ethan. Following the pair, he reached the front door and searched for a lock. Not really seeing one, he pushed down on the handle, noticing to his surprise that it creaked open. "Huh, that's kinda...weird," he muttered. But before pushing it open all the way, he glanced back at the car, noticing Jack linger. “Hey, potato bastard, let’s get moving!”

“Wha-” Jack’s eyes snapped away from the building to focus on Felix before he shook his head and reached into the trunk a few more times. They couldn’t really see from the angle he was at, but it was safe to assume he was grabbing a few extra bottles of cleaning solutions. “I’m coming, just give me a minute!”

Felix shook his head and turned back to the door, reaching forward to grab the handle and push the door open. The door opened with almost as tormented of a creak as the gate and the group crossed the threshold, looking around at the dim and dusty place. There was a moment of silence that was finally broken by a cough from Mark.

“Well. Guess we’re gonna be doing some cleaning,” Mark concluded.

“Goddammit,” Felix swore quietly as he looked around.

Ethan stepped forward, taking in the area. It seemed somewhat open-concept, in the sense that there was a giant entrance hall area with a staircase and a door on the back wall with no doors or walls separating the hall off from the left and right corridors. “Man, this place is big,” he whispered in awe.

“Where do we start setting this stuff up at?” Tyler questioned, shifting some of the things in his arms.

“Michael said the right hallway,” Felix replied, hanging right. Thankfully there were only two doors to choose from-although one of them was locked.

“Are all the doors like that?” Ethan wondered as Felix tried the second door, which opened easily.

“We did get free reign of the house, didn’t we?” Mark seconded as the group began to filter into the room. “Wasn’t one of the things on the agenda a ghost hunt? Or, uh, a mock one, at least?”

“Uh-well this one opened, at least,” Felix remarked, hints of relief and hope in his voice. “Maybe it was just that room-” But suddenly he sighed, running a hand back through his hair. “Shit, I dunno. We’ll make sure to check it all out in a little bit. If not, I’m calling back the owner of the place.”

Mark nodded and paused in the doorway, glancing back at the entrance hall where Jack was heading in with the bucket and looking around. Lost, perhaps?

“Hey, Jack! We’re over here,” he called, waving the Irishman over. “You know, where all the noise is coming from.”

“Oh-shit-” Jack chuckled, hurrying over with the bucket of cleaning things. “Of fucking course, where else?”

Mark shrugged and held the door open as the other man passed through before heading further on inside himself. The room actually looked pretty good for recording. Although it was large, it was also pretty versatile with wooden floors. One half being the kitchen, one half being some sort of lounge area-yeah, they could make this work. Lighting left something to be desired, and they’d certainly have to rearrange some furniture (he had the feeling the table that’d been pushed against the door next to the kitchen was done by Michael and co.) but they’d have that all fixed up in no time.

“It’s not half-bad,” he remarked as he set some things down on one of the sofas and looked around. “So we can do the majority of the recording over here-”

“And the cooking portion over there, yeah,” Felix agreed, nodding. He walked over to the counter that divided up the room a little bit, looking it over. “Anyway, I _think_ it’s gonna be enough space to work with. I mean, we’re gonna have a much bigger group this time around than we did for Cringemas, so…”

“If there isn’t enough room, we can probably set up a table or two,” Mark assured. “Might even be better if we do it that way anyway; gives the people watching a much better view of us than if we were behind the counter.”

“Well that is true…”

“What are we doing with some of this stuff?” Tyler called over, holding up a tin basin. It was one of several things in the pile left behind by Felix’s crew.

“Oh, that’s some of the challenge stuff for the physical activities. I don't think we're really gonna worry about that right now-not until Team Edge and Ken gets here to help set all that up,” Felix called back.

Tyler shrugged and set the basin back down as Felix meanwhile went for his camcorder to make a quick vlog update. Mark went to work making a list of what needed to go where and what they needed to clean with Tyler and Ethan heading over to provide their own input and negotiate out who did what-this seemed to come easy to them, probably having grown used to working out such setups for videos back in LA. Jack meanwhile grabbed the livestream itinerary and a pen, taking it over to the counter to skim it over somewhat absently while lightly tapping on the countertop.

And then they heard the thunk.

All eyes rolled upwards towards the ceiling, distracted. Jack frowned, pursing his lips for a moment before speaking.

“Hm, maybe just a rat.”

“That’s one hell of a big rat,” Ethan remarked.

“Or a rat party,” Tyler seconded.

“Might’ve just knocked something down?” Jack shrugged.

“No… That sounded closer to a person,” Mark noted.

Felix finally sighed, lowering his camcorder for a moment. “Dammit. I _knew_ those assholes were trying to play a prank on us.” He looked over at the others. “I’m gonna head on upstairs, get them back on task. Everyone else…” He shrugged. “Well, I guess uh...head to the car or somethin’. If the team’s still here to set up, we can actually go with our original plans and still make it to dinner.”

“Uh, maybe you should go with someone,” Mark pointed out, frowning.

Felix grinned back at him. “What, you think it could be a real ghost?”

“Nono, I’m of similar mind that it’s a prank by your crew. But it could also just as easily be a hobo or a crackhead something,” Mark pointed out. “Ever been in an abandoned building before?”

Felix made a face. “I can probably handle a hobo or a...crackhead…”

Jack grinned slightly. “Aw, c’mon, Mark. You’re probably just being paranoid. Odds are that it’s probably just the crew.” He shook his head. “Look, Felix is right-" He paused to make a face and add in teasingly, "Can't believe I just said that-" Ignoring Felix's roll of the eyes, he continued, "We’re already cutting it pretty close with dinner plans and I heard you already setting up a to-do list. Give that to me again so I can write it down and we can leave it here for the crew.”

“I’ll let Cry know that meeting up at the restaurant is still a thing,” Ethan volunteered, pulling out his phone.

Tyler looked around, then over at Felix with a shrug. “If I’ve got nothing else to do,” he volunteered.

Felix shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I guess-”

“Oh! Actually, Tyler, I was kinda hoping you could help with one thing first,” Jack called over. "Real quick."

Tyler shrugged and headed over. “What’s up?”

“Well, it’s just that the door to the next room over is locked. We don’t know if the other rooms are locked yet and some access to at least a decent portion of the house would be preferable for the ghost hunt-”

“You want me to go check the other rooms?”

“Oh! No, I actually wasn’t-nah.” Jack shook his head. “Nothing like that, really. It’s just that I was gonna do a search for the keys but I’m kinda caught up doing this-” He hesitated, scrunched up his face a little in reluctance and added, “And I was kinda thinking of checking the top of the cabinets and the refrigerator-”

Tyler smirked. “You can’t reach, can you?”

“I can’t help it!” The Irishman raised the pitch of his voice a little bit as he added, “I’m just a little boy!” Jack grinned and chuckled as Tyler laughed, then glanced over at Mark who was staring at them in confusion. “...What?”

Mark blinked a few times before running a hand back through his hair and shook his head. “Uh, nothing,” he replied, looking away. “Nothing-”

“Alright, well, I’ll be back down to meet up with you losers within the next few minutes,” Felix announced as he headed out of the room. “Try to be waiting by the car so we can head out as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, yeah, we got it,” Mark called over before turning his attention to the list Jack was starting to scrawl down. “Sweeping, yeah, countertops, uh-” He turned towards the sofas in the lounge area. “So I was thinking we could move the couches so they’re facing the cameras, like we did for Cringemas-”

“Uh, guys? Problem,” Ethan called over from his place on the arm of the couch. His face held a frown as his hands held his phone. “I’m not getting any signal here. No hint of anything internet or otherwise.”

“Ugh, is there not any wifi set up?” Mark sighed, pulling out his own phone to check. “Yeah, my phone’s not really picking anything up either. I mean, I get that we can’t get an actual phone signal here in the UK, but wifi shouldn’t even be an issue unless there’s not any. Maybe that’s something the crew was going to work on, but we're definitely gonna need something reliable in order to stream.” He let out a sigh and shook his head. "I guess if all else fails, we can do this back at the Revelmode office. We would have to lug everything back over though, set up and change up the agenda some.”

“We could probably manage it with enough coffee,” Jack assured with a note of hope. “Plus if this place really did end up creeping out the crew, they’d be more willing to get back to work if it did happen to be at the office.”

“I guess that’s true. Plus the office has a basic setup already, so that kinda gives us a headstart.” Mark sighed and shook his head again, rubbing his eyes. “Alright. Well. At least we have a decent Plan B. Really wish we knew about this last night or earlier, but at least now we have a couple of decent ideas-”

His words were interrupted with the sound of a crash coming from the fridge, to which Tyler winced slightly with hands still resting on top. Eyes to the source revealed the plate on the floor that was now all shattered to pieces. “Holy- You okay Tyler?” Ethan asked, eyes a bit wide with alarm.

“Yeah,” Tyler replied. “I’m fine, it didn’t get me. Uh-the plate isn’t though.” He didn’t notice Mark rolling his eyes as his right hand shifted just a bit and his fingers brushed something. When he pulled his hand down, a key was grasped within it.

“Oh, hey. Well at least you found the key,” Ethan pointed out.

“Yeah, well I found _a_ key.”

“We’ll pay for the plate if the person we rented this place from pitches a fuss,” Mark reassured.

Jack finally slid his hand away from his chest and let out a breath, shaking his head. “Jesus Christ, I think that about scared the life outta me for a second,” he said with a light chuckle.

“Oh yeah? Jumpy much?” Mark questioned, raising an eyebrow at Jack.

“It’s a _haunted house_ at best, an abandoned building with a resident drugged-up hobo at worst. If it’s putting any of us on edge, at least that means it’s doing its job proper,” Jack defended, shaking his head and turning his attention back to the paper he was writing on to scrawl another thing down. “Clean up broken plate-” he muttered.

“Nonono. I’ll go ahead and get this,” Mark volunteered, grabbing a broom and dustpan before heading back over to the freshly-made mess. Tyler reached down and grabbed one of the larger plate shards with a small look of guilt still lingering on his face before he shook his head and sighed-

And then that’s when they heard another thunk followed by a couple of shouts coming from upstairs.

All eyes returned to the ceiling with varying looks of curiosity, amusement and concern. Tyler was the one to finally break the silence, although his voice was quiet.

“...Should one of us go up there?”

The four men exchanged glances. Jack made a face, the bridge of his nose scrunching up a bit as he shifted. “It’s probably just Felix pranking the other guys back,” he suggested. “Probably.”

“He _would_ do that,” Mark muttered, although like Jack, he didn’t exactly sound a hundred percent convinced. The group heard a door (upstairs? Yeah, almost definitely upstairs) slam once, then a second time after about half a minute or so. They expected to hear laughter following or some sort of shouting or...or something afterwards, but-

As they listened to the floorboards above them creak, Jack pulled his attention from the paper and slowly made his way to the middle of the room. His blue eyes focused on the door all the while as he came to a stop next to the bucket he’d set down earlier and a frown fell across Mark’s face as he moved to join him.

“Really starting to think we should go check it out,” Mark affirmed, taking a step forward.

“Maybe Felix is trying to play a prank on us?” Ethan suggested, hopeful.

“Maybe…” Tyler began, but then shook his head. “But he’s expecting us to be out by the car by now. Pretty sure anyway.”

“Yeah, I don’t think…” Mark began, now taking more steps toward the door. A hand stopped him however, and he glanced back to see that it belonged to Jack. The Irishman was biting his lip, staring at the door intently. “Jack, what the hell-?”

“Shhh,” Jack whispered, his eyes still glued on the door. “Do you hear that?”

Mark’s frown deepened as he turned his focus back to the door, straining his ears for a moment. Now everyone was looking in that direction, and after a second they heard another floorboard creak-this one coming from the hallway just outside. Mark shrugged off the hand and shook his head. “It’s probably just Felix,” he reasoned, although he didn’t sound completely confident with that statement. It showed even more when his feet didn’t move any further.

By this point Ethan moved to his own feet and started slowly but quietly over to the pair, and the now-trio was soon joined by Tyler.

“So uh...right, guess we’d better go see if it’s him,” Mark reaffirmed quietly, although now his nerves were ramping up and he hadn’t yet moved. This anxiety wasn't quite the same he'd feel when playing a horror game or anything, this was for real. Why? Who knew why, maybe all this talk about drug-addled killer hobos or-

He shook his head, casting the ridiculous notion from his head, although unable to shake the residual uneasiness that came with it.

“Tyler's right, we actually should be out by the car already anyway-”

An abrupt rattle stopped his words immediately, and the knob slowly twisted before the door slowly creaked open. Only a little at first, but then suddenly it slammed the rest of the way open-

What stood in the doorway was not Felix.

What stood in the doorway wasn’t even human at all.

The creature that stared back at them with large, black, almond-shaped eyes was completely alien-pretty much in the literal sense, in fact. Its skin was grey and hairless, its neck long, putting it at a couple inches taller than Tyler. Arms were long with fingers that were tipped with claws, legs thick and ready for running. Or rather, probably more so chasing. When its mouth opened slightly, they could all see that its gnashing teeth were sharp and jagged.

Nobody moved, the thing itself included, but Ethan finally broke the silence with a whisper.

“...’Kay. That doesn’t really look like a prank-”

And those were the only words said before all hell broke loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter of Devil's Deal is finally here! Not a ton happened in this chapter, I'll admit, but all hell really is about to break loose. And a new person will soon be arriving on the scene! It's going to be great. Also many thanks for the comments and kudos thus far-this is the first fic I've actually ever posted up on AO3, so it really means a lot to me. Keep on letting me know what you guys think, and again, if you have any weapon suggestions for the characters, lemme know. It'll likely be coming into play fairly soon.
> 
> I'll see about having the next chapter up within the next few days, so until then!


	3. Chapter 2

The creature shifted forward to charge them but was distracted by the sudden collision of a flying bucket to its face. Three of the men glanced briefly back at the source, to which Jack lowered his arm and looked around at them all with wide blue eyes.

**“What are ye all waiting for?! Move!”**

That seemed to be enough to snap everyone back to their main priority: getting the fuck out of there. With the creature now partway in the room, the door was clear so long as they were able to get to it. The men scattered but the creature didn’t seem to take long in choosing its target-although the bucket to the face was likely a heavy influence on its decision. As it lunged after Jack, Tyler and Ethan were quick to make it out of the room. Mark was practically on their heels but skid to a quick stop when he saw Jack starting to get backed into a corner.

What was he doing?

Oh god, this was stupid.

What was he _doing?_

Before he allowed his thoughts to go any further, he scooped up a nearby box of lightbulbs and chucked it at the creature.

“HEY!” he shouted, causing the creature’s head to whip around and allowing the Irishman to quickly slip around the opposite side of it. It’d be enough for Jack to escape, Mark was sure of it. With that in mind, he didn’t linger any longer and took off running down the hall. The creature looked back to where it had Jack cornered but saw no one now, twisting around again just in time to see the shorter man disappear through the door that slammed shut behind him.

Jack was fast, and within a couple of seconds he’d caught up to Mark. Neither said anything but they did hear a hard thud up ahead and Ethan call to them from the entrance hall.

“The door’s locked-!”

“We’ll worry about it later, just run!” Jack called back without even slowing.

The pair saw Tyler and Ethan dart across the hall and up the stairs. Mark immediately started to turn and follow but Jack quickly caught his shirt and shook his head.

“That thing’s behind us, we’ll just end up leading it straight to them!” 

Mark cursed as his pace slowed only a little bit to look around frantically. “Then where do you propose we _go?!”_

“Uh-” Jack looked around as well (behind them included-that thing was coming up fast), but it only seemed to last a split second before he waved Mark forward to the next corridor up ahead. “This way!”

“Jack, that’s a dead end-!”

“Thought I saw a door down there when I came in, c’mon!”

Mark shook his head but had no choice except to follow at this point, hoping against hope that Jack’s instincts were on point. They soon reached the end of the left hall, relieved to find that it turned right and rounded the corner without delay.

Unfortunately, there were only two doors.

“If they’re locked-?” Mark began, but Jack shook his head.

“They’re not, they won’t be locked,” he assured. “They _shouldn’t_ be, anyway. Otherwise we’re fucked-”

As they reached the end of the hall, Jack tried the first door to the right. To their immense relief, it swung open and Mark started inside, but then stopped when he noticed the Irishman didn’t follow. His eyebrows shot up in alarm as he turned fully to face him. “Jack?!” he began, but his friend shook his head.

“Stay in there, lock the door and hide-”

“ _What-_ ”

“And don’t make a sound-”

“Jack-!”

“Until the coast seems clear.”

“What the hell are you-”

“I’m going to try and draw it away.”

Mark’s jaw momentarily dropped at the stupidity of the idea before he picked it back up and shook his head. “No. No! It’s going to-!”

_“Hush!”_ Jack ordered before slamming the door in Mark’s face.

Mark stared, blinking at the door for only a couple of seconds as he tried to catch his breath and attempted to grasp what the _hell_ just happened and what the _hell_ would possess his friend to be such an idiot. Finally he shook his head fiercely and grabbed the knob. An attempted twist didn’t quite work, and for a few more twists and pulls it finally clicked in his head as to why. When he looked down he saw that the lock on the knob had been turned-Jack must’ve somehow done so while Mark was trying to protest.

“Goddammit you Irish bastard-” Mark hissed under his breath, voice pitching just slightly from panic as he shifted his hand to turn the lock-but froze. Outside he heard the floorboards creak with something much heavier than Jack, his eyes widening as he strained his ears to listen. He didn’t hear the sound of chasing or voices or struggle-which meant that Jack probably just hid in the other room. While that was a relief, he still didn’t dare to breath, not yet at least. Rather, he silently twisted around to take in the room he was now in, eyes sweeping across the small space.

It was a bathroom. Not a very furnished one, from the looks of it-just a sink and the cabinet underneath (fitting down there probably wasn’t an option, especially not quietly), a large shelving unit with cubbyholes of towels and magazines and shoes (whose shoes? He wasn’t really sure he wanted the answer to that). But then it looked like there was an extra section to the the bathroom, separated only by an wall and an archway, so glancing back at the door, he silently and carefully made his way to the wall where he hoped there’d be less risk for noisy floorboards. Surprisingly he made it and quietly headed into the next section of the room-

A toilet.

It was just a toilet.

He dragged a hand down his face as he tried not to sigh too loudly, frowning and glancing back toward the door. Well, he wasn’t hearing much of anything out there now, at least, so-

So hopefully that meant the thing was gone now? Preferably without Jack dead right outside the door?

God, try not to even _think_ about that.

He absently looked around the room again, eyes resting on the toilet. Something nagged at him, striking him odd (although that was actually going on as far back as the ride up here, but this was a minor added portion of what was already there), but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it-

Wait.

...Was that toilet seriously lighting up?

Staring for a few more seconds to confirm that he wasn’t just going out of his mind and seeing things, he walked slowly and quietly over to the toilet, looking it over. More important things to be worried about at the moment, sure, but what-

Yeah, it was a toilet. But then on top of it was what looked like a very small vending machine. The items weren’t shown and the labels to each were written in Japanese for some reason. Yeah, this definitely seemed like one of those crazy Japanese toilets Felix made a video about one time.

God. What the hell _was_ this place?

He shook his head in bewilderment and ran a hand back through his hair, heading back over towards the bathroom door. He was supposed to be hiding, but-

He tensed and froze when he saw the doorknob start to turn, stop, then rattle a little bit with frustration. He didn’t even dare to breathe as he listened to one, two, three bangs on the door. His eyes darted around the room and he wondered if maybe he really was too big to fit in that cabinet under the sink after all-

But then the footsteps outside the door picked up again, thankfully heading back down the hall from whence they came. When the footsteps finally faded, he allowed himself to exhale and pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead as he tried thinking what the hell he was going to do now.

Okay. Okay, find Jack, find Tyler and Ethan, find Felix (dammit, to be honest, he wasn’t even sure if Felix was _alive_ at this point, but he wasn’t even going to consider the alternative possibility right now). Figure out how to get out of this place, leave, warn the others, preferably burn this place to the ground or...or _something._

...And maybe pick up some kind of makeshift weapon in the process?

Dammit, this was already starting to look like some kind of horror game and he didn’t even have a flashlight.

He turned his attention back to the shelves with the cubbyholes, and although he was anxious to get started on his to-do list, he was also reluctant to leave. Okay. Okay, this was fine. Search the cubbyholes, maybe he would find _something_ he could use to protect himself, although he wasn’t entirely sure what. The cubbyholes weren’t all that big and he was in a bathroom but then again this place also had a vending machine on the _toilet_ , so he wasn’t about to dismiss anything just yet. Crossing the small room as quickly and quietly as possible, he began to search through each of the cubbyholes, but so far nothing useful was really turning up.

“A gun…” he muttered to himself, deciding to fill the void of silence with his own voice that wasn’t much louder than a whisper. “Would be most preferable.”

Preferable, perhaps, but he certainly didn’t seem to be finding one. Letting out a sigh, his eyes scanned over the cubbyholes again, figuring he’d probably have to get creative. They finally fell upon a silver lighter, which he grabbed and observed before shaking his head and pocketing it.

“Dammit,” he whispered. “This really is a horror game.”

Well, at least the electricity and overall lights were still working in this place.

For now.

Further search turned out a can of hairspray, which he grabbed as well and shoved into his jacket pocket. If he couldn’t find a weapon, fine. If he had to get creative, _fine_. He’d just make himself a weapon in the form of a makeshift flamethrower.

...Because that wasn’t dangerous to all parties involved at all.

Picking through the cubbyholes for a while longer, he cringed when his hands passed through a whole bunch of cobwebs a few times but ignored it. When his hand met something that felt like canvas, he withdrew it to find he was grasping what looked like some sort of military pouch, colored a drab olive green.

“What the hell…?” he muttered, turning the pouch over in his hands. It looked kinda old, pretty worn, but not necessarily like it’d been sitting there for decades on end, either. The pouch was held shut by a slightly-tarnished brass button with some sort of marking on it that looked pretty official-no doubt to whatever military the owner was employed by. Flipping it open pretty easily, he stifled a small cough from the dust that flew out and reached in to touch metal. He shifted the pieces between his fingers for a moment before finally withdrawing a few coins. Most of them generally held the similar size, but the nationalities…

There were Euro, definitely. Ten pence, yen. Then some coins that looked a lot like yuan and...rubles? Maybe? Judging by some of the designs and writing on them, that’s what it all seemed like.

And then quarters. A whole lot of American quarters.

...What the hell was this all even _for?_

Something clicked, calling his attention back to the opening of the other room. “No…” he whispered, getting up and heading back over to the toilet. His eyes skimmed over the labels on the machine for a few moments before he finally shrugged, fishing out a couple coins. The labels didn’t really seem to indicate any actual price or anything-and how could it, he supposed, if its only real calculator was size? He supposed he’d just start with one and follow it up with a couple more if necessary. And in the meantime, hope sincerely that its products included guns and ammo or something along those lines.

One coin, press a random button, nothing.

Two coins, silence. Then suddenly a tired old whirring sound followed by a soft ‘thud’.

...Uh.

He reached down into the slot, pulling out something sealed in a plastic pouch that seemed a bit...squishy. Oh boy. Somehow he had the feeling that this wasn’t exactly the weapon he’d been hoping for. His fingers tore open the package and pulled apart the ziplock only for him stare at it for several long seconds.

“...A riceball,” he identified softly. He sighed and shook his head, sealing it back up and shoving it into his jacket pocket regardless. “Great.”

Alright then.

Flamethrower would just have to do.

There didn’t seem to be anything else of use in here and he could only justify delaying his search for so long. So he sighed and shoved some of the coins into his pocket, then shut the canvas pouch and shoved it deep into one of the cubbyholes. After all, god only knew if there’d be something else he could use them on in here, but he wasn’t about to carry the whole pouch due to the weight and sound and overall inconvenience of it. With that all said and done, he turned back to the door, eyeing it for a few extra moments with reluctance and anxiety before finally making his way over and unlocking it. His hand grasped the doorknob, slowly turning it and pulling it open, cautiously poking his head out and peeking around. When he felt confident enough that the coast was clear, he stepped out, gulping in an attempt to steady his nerves.

The monster wasn’t anywhere to be found. For now.

But then, neither was Jack.

Okay. Find everyone, get everybody out, and try not to get killed in the meantime. Should be simple enough.

As he pulled the can of hairspray and the lighter from his pockets to properly arm himself, he tried to ignore his mind silently screaming how much of a lie that was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter isn't quite as long as the others; this kinda seemed like the best cut-off point for this one. But the next chapter! The next chapter, definitely introducing a new character and throwing him into the chaos. In the meantime, thanks so much for the support so far; seeing the extra kudos definitely warms my heart and keeps the flames of inspiration burning. So drop a kudo, drop a comment, lemme know what you guys think and I'll see about getting the next chapter up soon in the meantime. Until then!


	4. Chapter 3

“This is stupid. This is stupid. I don’t really wanna do this,” a man muttered under his breath with a hint of anxiety as he pulled up to the old manor and shifted the car into park. “I don’t really wanna do this but I do.” Turning off the car and stepping out, he stared up at the old massive building for a while before adding just as quietly, “Damn. This place is a lot bigger than I thought it was gonna be.”

As he reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, he caught sight of his own reflection in the driver’s window. Even though his blue hoodie did its job in keeping him warm and partly obscuring his appearance, he still wasn’t content and it was enough to give him pause. “Uh-” He pursed his lips in a frown. “Huh.”

He shouldn’t be feeling anxious about this. He _really shouldn’t_ , he played games with these guys, after all. These were friends of his, not fans-or at least some of them were. Some of them he actually barely knew, didn’t really interact with a whole lot or anything. But from the sound of it, he was really going to end up interacting with only a handful of the group anyway, and it was the handful he actually more so knew.

Even so, he couldn’t help but to feel uneasy.

Well, he caved and flew all the way to the UK just to meet with these guys. Maybe agreeing to this meet-up was stupid, maybe it wasn’t, but it’d be even stupider to turn back after coming all this way.

So finally he shook his head. “Well. I guess...I guess I’d better head on in there.”

Still, he only got a couple of steps before he hesitated, catching sight of his reflection in the window again and making a face. But then he looked past the reflection, noticing something that’d gotten left in the backseat when he carted his luggage up to his hotel room the night before. This might look kinda silly, but…

“Well. It is Halloween,” he noted, opening the car door and reaching in to pull out the item. When he withdrew, in his hands was a signature Cry mask. “Uh-” He turned the item over in his hands a couple of times before reaching up and pulling back his hood with a slight grin. Maybe silly, but by virtue of Halloween, he’d arguably be the best-dressed person to the prep party. “Yeah! Fuck it!” Pulling on the mask and raising the hood again, he could feel his confidence rise a little bit already. He was relieved he’d decided to go with contacts before he left for the hotel; it made wearing this thing a whole lot easier now.

Letting out a tiny chuckle at the look, he made his way over to the gate, the leaves crunching under his feet. Looked unlocked, and Felix’s car was parked rather close to his own, so he was pretty sure this was the place and they were already here. Seeing no call button or anything (this place definitely looked pretty old), he opened up the creaky gate and slipped inside to head up the gravel walkway. As he did, he pulled his phone from his pocket with the intention of messaging one of them, but then frowned when a wifi signal or otherwise didn’t come up.

Well. That wasn’t very good.

When he reached the door, he looked back and forth, then at the door, searching for a doorbell. “Ah…”

This place was huge, how the hell was he supposed to figure out where everybody was? And to top things off, his search turned up nothing, there wasn’t any doorbell in sight-

A rumble of thunder in the distance caused him to twist around and glance back, frowning slightly behind the mask. “Oh… Well. Dammit.”

Maybe it’d just be better for him to take his chances. Still, he knocked once or twice, doubting anyone would’ve heard it if they were any real distance from the door. “Uh- Hello? Hello, is anyone here?” Upon getting no answer, he shook his head, pulling down the handle-testingly at first, but then pushing the door open a slight bit and poking his head in to look around. “I’m coming in!”

He stepped inside, closing the door behind him and looking around. The silence was unnerving, especially considering it was supposed to be a house with a group of people setting up for a Halloween livestream. Even _more so_ considering that said people consisted of at least part of the Revelmode group, none of which had much of a reputation for being quiet. A frown settled upon his face as he strained his ears for… _something. Anything_ , really, footsteps or voices or...whatever, man.

But he got nothing.

He knew he wasn’t doing a video or anything, but he felt the need to fill the void. Besides, hearing himself reason things out was a little bit comforting in an odd sort of way. “Yeah, this place is pretty big. I don’t know how the heck they expect me to find them.”

Lifting a finger to point down one hall, then the staircase, then then other hall, he whispered, “Eenie, meenie, minie-fuck.” He shook his head, not quite having the patience to go through the whole thing. Instead he heaved a sigh and shrugged. “Alright. Uh-Imma just gonna go _this_ way,” he decided as he turned right. There didn’t seem to be too many doors to pick from down this way, so if it turned out to be a bust, he could quickly rule it out. But hopefully it was one of the two rooms at the end of the corridor, because he didn’t have much desire to wander the spooky house all alone in its entirety. He had no idea what the left hand corridor or upstairs looked like-or even the door just behind the stairs, for that matter, because wasn’t that a thing too? Either way, judging from the outside, this place definitely had more than just two floors, so a full-on search could really take a while.

Well, just take it easy, one door at a time. Start out with the two doors on this hallway and-oh. Seemed like one of them was locked anyway.

Alright, check the next door.

He pushed the partly-opened door the rest of the way as he stepped inside, looking around. The room was filled with recording equipment and stuff for the planned activities and whatnot, but not a single person-

“Huh…” he breathed, walking further into the room, feeling the hairs starting to stand up on the back of his neck as he got a closer look. The more he saw of this room, the more he felt on edge. A box of lightbulbs lay near the corner, one of them having rolled partway out and broken as if thrown. Something dark and not-lightbulby looked to be sticking out of the box as well…?

He walked over, reaching down gingerly to grasp the dark object and carefully withdraw it with a light shake that shifted the box. Looked like a brass key.

Huh. Interesting.

He straightened back up and pocketed the key, walking around slowly to continue his examination of the room. He almost missed that key-although what the heck it’d be doing in a box of lightbulbs was beyond him. He might have to give this place a more thorough check-over than he originally thought.

There was paper on the counter with scrawled handwriting, what looked like a to-do list or something. In front of the fridge, fragments of what looked like a plate were partly swept up. And then wandering back towards the center of the room, something small caught his eye, something rectangular. He reached down to pick it up off the floor and turn it over in his hand.

“Somebody’s phone…?” he muttered, hitting the button. It turned on with no issue, showing it hadn’t been here long-there was still plenty of battery to it. And while he clearly wasn’t gonna get past the lock screen, he could see that the few words shown were all in English. Hm. Okay, so he doubted that it belonged to Felix. But that still didn’t help him out very much. With a soft ‘hm’, he pocketed the cell and sighed as he headed back out into the hallway. “Well. I guess I’m not gonna find anyone in this room.”

He made his way back to the entrance hall, looking around as he frowned under the mask. Well this was predicament.

“Hello?” he called, for once raising his voice. It practically echoed in the empty expanse of the house. “Is anybody there?”

Okay, yeah, this place was really starting to give him the creeps. Why did they have to insist on renting out a place like this? Why couldn’t they just do the livestream back at the office?

“What the actual…” he muttered under his breath, looking around at the surrounding area again. Glancing back down at the key he had, he looked back down the hallway he just came from, remembering the locked door. “Oh… Yeah, okay. Let’s try it.” He made his way back to the door, turning left to face it and trying the knob once more-just to be sure. Yep, definitely locked.

“Uh-this-” he muttered, raising the key and twisting it in the lock. To his surprise, it actually opened and he slowly pushed the door in a bit further, although at this point he was wondering what the odds were that someone might be in a locked room that required a key. “Uhm-”

Well, at least the light was still on.

“Hello?”

He stepped inside, casting a look around the room. Seemed to be a small library or something, but even by those standards, there wasn’t too much in here. A rather large table, a chair, a few bookshelves. There was a portion of wall on the right side of the room like a little island, narrowing out that part of the room into a sort of corridor.

Or something to hide behind, he supposed, but he tried not to think about it.

He almost turned back right then and there, but this seemed to be just as good a lead as any. He didn’t know if any of the other doors were going to be locked and if they were, he certainly didn’t have the key to any of them. Walking further into into the room until he was standing next to the table, he tried again: “Is anyone in here?”

A small noise caught his attention a couple bookcases away, and he rolled his eyes and made his way over. “Hey, I can hear you, ya-”

Reaching the narrow space between the back backshelves and the wall, his words fell short upon seeing the green-haired Irishman standing silently at the end, frozen and wide-eyed, like a deer caught in the headlights. What appeared to be some sort of old, leather journal was clutched in his hand. “Jack?”

“Shite,” Jack whispered, an odd tinge of frustration bleeding into his voice that didn’t quite match his expression. Seeming to remember Cry was standing right there, he added in explanation, “Ah-I forgot to lock the door, didn’t I?”

“Wha- Uh, no. No, I actually found the key.” Cry shook his head and took a few steps into the aisle. “Jack, what the hell is going on?”

Jack opened his mouth to explain, but for once no sound came out. Instead he closed his mouth and lifted a finger to his lips, to which Cry frowned and tilted his head questioningly.

“What…?” Cry mouthed even though Jack wouldn’t be able to see it, but the Irishman pointed in the direction of the rest of the room as if in response anyway. As he turned his attention to the rest of the room, he just barely managed to suppress a yelp of surprise when he felt Jack grab his arm and pull him a bit further into the aisle. Shooting the Irishman a look, he then peered through the bookcase at the source of what he now realized were heavy footsteps and stared at something large, gray and moving.

What the fuck was that? And furthermore, how the hell did he miss that thing’s approach?

He looked back at Jack questioningly, but the other man shook his head silently. Judging by the way the other man was holding his breath, all Cry could surmise was that _something_ was up, and whatever it was, it probably wasn’t really a good thing.

The gray mass seemed to wander closer to their bookcase, but Cry remained still. If this was scaring Jack, there had to be a reason. A little odd though-a quick, furtive glance at the Irishman showed that his expression was one of-if anything-intensity, not fear. There wasn’t a wince or a cringe or anything, but his hand was beginning to silently lift in case they needed to take off in a hurry.

The pair waited until finally the thing decided to turn and head out, shutting the door behind it. Jack exhaled and shook his head.

“I think we’re safe now,” he whispered, quickly shuffling over to the door to lock it.

“Jack, what the _hell_ is going on?” Cry asked, following him out and stopping by the table. “What the hell was that thing and where is everybody else?”

“An alien...a monster, we’re not particularly sure.” Jack shook his head and headed back over. “We were setting up over in the next room.” He stopped just a few feet away, setting the book down on the table and scratching his beard. His face was red and somewhat blotchy. Cry remembered a twitter conversation where Jack mentioned he couldn’t sweat very well. Had he been running up to this point? “That _thing_ busted in and attacked us, forced everyone to scatter. Mark’s down the other hallway, Tyler and Ethan made it up the stairs, and Felix…” He shook his head, rubbing his eyes underneath his glasses. “I don’t even fuckin’ know what happened to Felix. He went upstairs to check out some noise just before the monster came down to us. I don’t know if he’s hiding or…” He frowned and looked away, picking the book back up off the table to fiddle with absently. Cry couldn’t blame him for seeking comfort in the distraction. It was better than completely freaking out, anyway.

“Shit,” he remarked, shaking his head. Good god, what the hell did he just walk into? “Uh-okay. Well I can’t exactly make a phone call here in the UK-”

“I can’t either. Nobody can. We’ve got no signal,” Jack replied. “No wifi.”

Cry sighed, mulling over it for a while. Finally, “Okay. Well. I’ve got a car. Some keys. We bring in the cops or something, maybe they can help us.”

Jack shook his head. “I’m not leaving the others here,” he replied. “Besides, the door’s locked-”

“Clearly it’s not if I managed to get in here,” Cry countered. “Besides, I get not wantin’ to leave while the others are still here, and I haven’t exactly gotten a good look at the monster, but what are you even gonna do?” Watching Jack frown and look away, he continued, “The best way we can help at this point is to get the cops and let them handle it.”

“Assuming they’d even believe us,” Jack muttered. He finally sighed and shook his head. “Okay. Um-okay. Well. Let’s at least see what’s going on with the lock before anything and then we’ll decide on things from there.”

Cry felt a hint of relief as he shrugged. “Alright, fair enough,” he agreed, heading over to the library door. “Let’s go open ourselves a door.” He reached out to unlock it, adding, “Not this one.” He pulled the library door open and peeked around cautiously before giving Jack a wave and heading out and down the hall. The two men heard nothing but silence aside from their own breathing and footsteps. Cry decided to break it.

“So how long have things been like this?” he asked. “When did that thing come out and attack you?”

Jack opened his mouth, seeming to think, shut it again, then considered before replying, “Probably not longer than fifteen, twenty minutes ago?” he replied. “Ah-” He pulled his phone, eyeing it for a split second before turning it off again and shaking his head. “My phone is acting up. What time do you got?”

Cry reached into his pocket and checked. “7:38,” he replied before shoving the phone back in.

“Probably about twenty minutes ago then,” Jack replied, looking around, then over at the door as they reached it. “There’s the door.”

“Yeah, let’s give this a-” Cry reached for the door, tried pulling down the handle and pulling the door open. “Uh-” The handle stopped partway. He frowned, giving it a little jiggle before releasing it. “Fuck.” He turned back to Jack, trying not to look quite as sheepish as he felt. Not too difficult thanks to his mask. “Well. I guess we move on to Plan B then.”

Jack looked away with a small sigh, glancing around the place. “Yeah. Plan B,” he agreed softly.

Cry thought for a moment as he looked around. “You said that Mark was down the hall, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Just down the hall and around the corner. Hiding in a bathroom, I think,” Jack replied, scratching the back of his head.

“Good. That makes things easy. First we’ll go meet up with him. Then we’ll go find everybody else,” Cry assured. “And _then_ we’re gonna figure out how to get the heck outta here.”

Jack didn’t even look back at him. Instead he continued to stare down the hallway and merely muttered in response, “Yeah...out.”

Cry frowned at this, but then shook his head and shrugged as he began moving down the hall. If Jack wasn’t going to take up the lead…

Actually. No. Hang on.

Glancing back at Jack, he gave the Irishman a sideways look. “Hey, Jack… Are you feeling okay?”

Jack pulled his gaze up from the floor, blinking a couple of times with wide blue eyes. “What?”

“You’re not hurt or whatever, are you? Not trying to hide any sort of injuries like an idiot badass or anything-?”

Jack eyed him with a confused frown for a moment, but then, “Oh! Uh, no. Not really, no. Just a bit shaken.” Adding in a weak chuckle, he added, “And I guess kinda suffering from the aftermath of running from some kind of freakish monster. You know: worn out, hot, itchy…” He winced a bit, subconsciously scratching the side of his neck, but then looked back over at Cry. “Why?”

Cry opened his mouth to reply for a second, but then hesitated as he thought on the answer to that. Why indeed. It wasn’t like Jack was someone he’d ever met in person before. They’d never really hung out together or anything, so really, far be it from him to judge. But it was just-

Ugh.

This was going to be bugging him for a while now.

So instead he shrugged somewhat helplessly. “Well I mean, you know,” he replied. “Pretty much what you said: you’d been running from a freakish monster before I found you-”

“Well now technically at that point I was hiding-”

Cry rolled his eyes. “Injuries and shit happen, you know? And anyway...uh…” He searched for the best way to word his thoughts before giving up and shook his head. “Nevermind.”

Jack stared at him for a moment before realization dawned on his face. “I’m a lot quieter and less energetic than you thought I would be, aren’t I?”

...Yeah. That pretty much nailed it.

“People must bug you about that quite a bit, huh?” Cry asked, now feeling slightly awkward but at the same time a tiny bit relieved. If there were any actual concerns or anything, better if they all got addressed early.

“Yeah, kinda,” Jack chuckled sheepishly. “Well I mean-you know. We’re all at least a little bit different outside of Youtube and social media. Everyone is.”

Cry nodded in understanding as they turned down another hallway on their right. “I guess.”

“I just kinda guessed it because people kept asking me the same question on the drive up here,” Jack explained. “It was kinda the same when I was visiting LA at one point last year, too.”

Cry nodded, satisfied with that answer. “I think I get it. You’re really just you,” he relented. “I guess all of us can kinda say that. But still, it is kind of a legitimate question, you know? I don’t wanna have to find out that you’re in some kind of serious pain right when we’re in the middle of a fight or running or something.”

Jack nodded, sheepish. “That’s fair,” he agreed. But suddenly he came to a stop, staring at something before them. Cry stopped as well, about to ask what it was that Jack was staring at when he saw it too.

The bathroom door.

It was open.

“Oh…” Cry began, cautiously approaching it to glance around inside, then walking fully in. “Uh. Jack?” he called out. “I’m not seeing Mark.” A bright light caught his eye as he was about to leave the bathroom and he paused, turned and headed into the next semi-room over. It was no bigger than the first, but-

“And I think I found something.” He paused, giving the object before him a good look-over to make sure it really was what he thought before speaking, because if he was wrong, this was definitely going to sound exceedingly stupid. But-no, he was pretty sure- “I think I found a vending machine toilet.” His voice dropped down to a whisper for his own benefit as he peered down at the absurd mechanism. “What the fuck?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy-when did so many people start reading this thing? And _liking_ this thing? What? But seriously, thanks guys! I really appreciate the support and it's helping immensely with keeping my muse going (as well as my confidence for posting). Again, it is kinda my first AO3 thing, so I'm kinda going into it blind. But it's been a great experience so far. I'll try and have the next chapter up soon! In the meantime, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you guys in the next chapter. Until then!


	5. Chapter 4

Jack wasn’t in the neighboring room.

He wasn’t in the neighboring room when Mark checked it, at any rate (which happened to be another bathroom, by the way), and now the American was struggling to remain calm and keep his mind from jumping to conclusions. Maybe Jack managed to hide in the room like he did until the monster left. But if that was the case, why didn’t he come back to regroup? Was he really that worried about leading the monster back to him?

But...he had to have hidden in that room. Had to. Because there was really no other way he could’ve gone without running head-on into that monster. And Mark refused to believe that happened. He _couldn’t_ believe that happened, he had to try his best to remain hopeful.

Although hope was already looking to be in short supply when trapped within a fancy cage where monsters roamed freely.

Well. Okay then. Switch over to another objective. He wasn’t really sure where Jack went, but he knew for a fact that Tyler and Ethan had run upstairs. He really just needed to gather everyone back together in general, so with a better lead on those two, he’d start his search for them. As he rounded the corner and caught sight of another door, he tested it in spite of his plans. Also locked. Okay, so definitely upstairs then.

He soon made it back to the entrance hall and hesitated, pausing to stare at the front door. Ethan told them it was locked...but it was just one of those things he just had to see and test out for himself before accepting it. He headed over, pulling down on the handle and giving it a jiggle. Nope, it was definitely locked. Peering at the lock, he could definitely see that it required a key, and really, it almost seemed as if someone had put this door on backwards with the intention of locking people in.

“Oh, goddammit,” he whispered, letting his hand slip away from the cool metal of the handle. Maybe once they were all together, they could collectively bust the door down. The door looked to be pretty thick, so he really doubted he’d be able to do it all on his own. Although maybe if there was a window…

He’d look for that later. He didn’t really feel comfortable enough wandering around out in the open alone, makeshift flamethrower or no. Right now he had to focus on finding his friends and regrouping, and _then_ they could all focus on leaving and just how exactly screwed they were. Hopefully a bit more so the former than the latter.

So he turned and crossed the entrance hall, heading up the stairs. When he reached the second floor, he could see that the floor split into two hallways in the back end of the house up ahead and two hallways behind in the front portion-an ‘I’ shape, so to speak-and there looked to be a staircase up to the next floor right above the one he just climbed. He looked around, first walking toward the back of the house since he was facing it already and taking the left corridor. Only two rooms, simple enough. Locked door, locked door, he was done here.

He headed down the right corridor, only one door, tried it-no, that one was locked too. He pursed his lips in a frown, turning back around to the main hallway and heading over to the two corridors at the front of the house. Tried the hallway to his right first, locked door, nothing. Tried the hallway to his left, two doors this time. One of them was definitely locked, but the other one…

The knob actually twisted this time and the door opened, allowing the man to step inside tentatively and looking around, making sure to close the door behind him. It was a pretty spacious room, if not perhaps a little bit plain. Bed off to one corner, a bunch of bookshelves lining one wall, a white sofa with a coffee table and a TV. And then next to the door, a chest of drawers, a couple of armoires.

“Tyler?” he called softly, but just enough that he hoped he was heard by anyone actually in hiding. “Ethan?”

He couldn’t help but tense when he first heard the shift of movement and subconsciously reached back to grab the doorknob, but then relaxed just slightly when he saw a hand (a _human_ hand, thank god) slide out from underneath the bed to help pull its owner the rest of the way out.

He’d guessed who it was before the person was even partway out and quickly hurried over to help him. “Tyler,” he identified, breathing a sigh of relief. He let the man get a little bit more out from underneath the bed before continuing. “Are you okay? Where’s Ethan?”

Before Tyler could even respond, a soft creak made Mark look over his shoulder and notice that a door to one of the armoires had just opened up.

“I’m in here,” Ethan assured in a small voice, still sounding a bit shellshocked.

“You did lock the door behind you, right?” Tyler asked, glancing up at Mark.

“Uh-shit, no,” Mark began, to which Tyler waved him away.

“Go lock the door, I can get out just fine on my own.” With a soft grunt, he scooted a bit further out from underneath the bed as Mark hurried back over to the door to lock it.

Ethan seemed to be in no real hurry to get out from inside the armoire-not entirely, anyway. So instead he sat there watching with a mix of worry, exhaustion, fear and shock still on his face. “Where’s Jack?” he finally asked.

Mark shook his head. “To be honest, I was kinda hoping you guys would know,” he admitted.

“Wasn’t he with you?” Tyler asked, finally pulling himself out all the way and climbing to his feet, dusting himself off.

“Yeah, he was,” Mark replied, unable to keep an edge of irritation out of his voice. Not at Tyler and Ethan, god no, really more so towards Jack. “Then he decided to be an idiot and left me in a bathroom while he tried luring the thing away.”

“Oh man.” Tyler covered his face with his hands for a moment before dragging them back down and shaking his head. “Hopefully he’s still okay. Felix too. I’m guessing you haven’t found him yet?”

Mark shook his head. “No, not yet,” he admitted. “But he’s gotta be up here somewhere. There’s still one more door I haven’t checked downstairs, same with the lounge, but somehow I’m doubting that he’s down there. Or maybe he’s up on the third floor; I haven’t even gone up there yet.”

Ethan frowned and looked away, unwilling to voice the opinion that Mark’s proposals were optimistic at best. “Okay, so we find them. And then what?” he asked. “The door is locked.” Drawing in a shaky breath, he added, “Sorry guys, just...seriously, what the _fuck_ is happening right now?!”

Mark couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt and worry as he caught the brief hitch of panic in his friend’s voice. They wouldn’t even _be_ here if he hadn’t invited them to begin with...and now they were in a situation where they might all-

Nonono. Nonononono. Try not to think about it.

“What happened is that we’ve been dropped into a horror game,” Tyler sighed. “And now there’s an alien… _monster_ thing out there trying to kill us. For no good reason.”

Yeah. That about summed it up.

“I’m hoping we can maybe force it open if we have enough people,” Mark replied. “Or...maybe Felix has the key or something? He did to the gate, at least.”

“Yeah, but to the door…” Tyler began, sounding doubtful. The distant sound of thunder rumbling drew their attention to the window on the far end of the room, which Mark approached and examined.

“Well...I mean, there’s always the window,” he began. “I mean, I considered it a little bit downstairs, but-” Before he finished his words, he pushed the curtain aside and his face fell.

“Bars over the windows,” Tyler noted quietly. “Probably the same downstairs too.”

Ethan took another deep breath and dropped his face into his hand, shaking his head and deciding this time not to comment. Mark turned back to his friends and bit his lip. The bubbling panic in the room was obvious, even though nobody was showing it _too_ overtly. Yet.

“Normally I would recommend us sticking together-” he began, to which Tyler narrowed his eyes at him.

“You’re not going off alone,” he said firmly.

“Tyler? Tyler,” Mark began, keeping his own tone firm but soft. “At the moment we’ve only got an odd number of people-”

“I can see that. So the three of us can go together.”

“No, we can’t. Look, I get it. Believe me, I do. I’ve seen enough from the horror genre to know that this is typically a pretty bad idea but…” He shook his head in an attempt to shake off his own doubts and worries. Tyler was right, this was a pretty stupid idea. But he really didn’t want to put his recently-found friends at more risk than they already were. And Ethan was really not looking to be in good shape, so. “Somebody has to go find the others. Now, I found a few things in the bathroom…” He held up the lighter and hairspray. Tyler gave him an incredulous look.

“Flamethrower?” he questioned. Mark nodded.

“That’s what I’m thinking, yeah,” he affirmed, glad to see they were on the same page-for this much, at least. “So at least I’m armed. Kinda.”

“Kinda,” Tyler agreed, but Mark could still see the other man’s stubbornness was unrelenting. “It’s still no good reason as to why you should be going alone.”

Mark sighed. _Dammit._ “What I’m saying is that I think we need to establish some sort of base camp. If I end up finding anyone seriously hurt or anything, I wanna be assured that there’s gonna be a safe place to take them back to.” Dropping his voice a bit to a murmur, he added, “And besides. I don’t really think everyone’s ready for travel just yet, and I don’t want anyone in here being left behind.”

Tyler frowned, casting a furtive glance over at Ethan, but then finally shifted a bit and sighed. “You’re an idiot,” he muttered reluctantly, rubbing the back of his neck. Finally he made a face and walked back a few paces, then turned around and returned. “ _Fine._ But I want you keeping us posted. Every twenty minutes or so-give a light knock on the door or something so we at least know you’re still alive.”

“Thirty,” Mark bargained, and even then he knew he was pushing it a little. “Thirty minutes. It’s a big house.”

He could see that it was grinding his friend’s nerves a bit, but surprisingly Tyler relented. “Thirty. _Fine._ Just know that if you’re not back by then, we’re heading out to try and find you and the others ourselves. Or at least a way out of here.”

Mark made a face at the prospect, but nodded in agreement. “That’s fair. I won’t blame you,” he agreed reluctantly. Although he wasn’t too big on the idea of them wandering the house looking for everyone, he could certainly respect the idea of them looking to find a way out. If bad things happened to everyone else, they could only stay in the room for so long, after all. So he pulled out his phone, making a slight face when he noticed the clock was off by a few hours. But ugh, didn’t really matter. He’d deal with it later. All he needed right now was the timer.

“Setting my timer to twenty-five minutes…” he muttered as his thumb quickly scrolled to the number.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Tyler said, seeming to remember something. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the key he’d found on top of the refrigerator and handing it over to Mark. “I don’t know if it’s supposed to open the room next to the lounge or…” He shook his head. “But maybe one of the others locked themselves in a room and hid. That’s what we ended up doing the first time it came by.”

The _first_ time? Oh boy. “And after that…?” Mark began.

“We were about to head out and noticed it just down the hall. Ended up panicking and hiding; kinda forgot to lock the door,” Tyler confessed. “That said, whatever that _thing_ is, it doesn’t seem to be very smart. Just walks into the room, looks around and walks right back out.”

“So it doesn’t search any of the hiding places?” Mark questioned, notes of surprise and confusion crossing over his face.

“It didn’t with us, at least,” Tyler replied.

Mark considered this for a moment, then finally nodded. “Then I’ll definitely keep that in mind,” he said gratefully. “Thanks Tyler.”

Tyler shook his head. “Hey, just come back in one piece,” he replied.

“Yeah. Don’t get yourself killed,” Ethan said, oddly quietly. “Be careful, Mark.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Mark reassured. “Keep the door locked until I get back.”

“Not a problem,” Tyler assured. Mark frowned and nodded, reluctant to go back out there-especially alone-but he’d already argued his case and somebody was going to have to do it.

And it wasn’t about to be these guys.

So taking a deep breath, he headed over to the door, waiting until Tyler followed him over to lock it immediately after he left. “Alright guys. Wish me luck,” he said before disappearing through the door. He watched as the door closed behind him and listened to the lock click softly, doing his best not to think too much of it lest any panic or anxiety decided to rise from it. He glanced back down at his phone, taking another deep breath in and hitting ‘start’ to the timer.

“Okay…” he murmured softly, trying to ease the silence just a bit with his own voice. “Jack and Felix. Let’s figure out where the hell you guys are now and then get the _hell_ out of here.” He glanced back down at the key before pocketing it. “And also where this key goes to. Probably downstairs, we’ll try that first…”

Heading downstairs, he kept a sharp eye out once again for both his missing friends and the monster, but to his disappointment and relief respectively, he still found pretty much nothing. He let out a soft sigh and turned left, heading toward the lounge and the locked room, but coming up on it-

“Uh-” he began, noticing the door was cracked open somewhat.

Okay, that was either the carelessness of one of his friends or a blatant trap, he was pretty sure of it. And considering that the door was now open, it probably wasn’t what this key went to (unless there was more than one, of course, but what were the odds of that?). As he pocketed the key, he readied the hairspray and lighter to a position in front of him, hesitant but frowning in determination. There was no real excuse he even had to be scared now, or at least, not as bad as the others. He was ready and armed and therefore stood the best chance in case that thing found him and decided to attack.

Lightly pushing the door open with his foot, he looked around. “Jack?” he called out softly, looking around. “Felix?”

Seeing no one (or at least no monsters anyway), he shut the door behind him and locked it so he could do a good, proper search of the room. It looked a lot like a mini-library of some kind, although a lot of the books on the shelves were pretty dusty.

But how did this room become unlocked in the first place? _When?_ Had Jack been hiding out in here when he chose to go upstairs instead?

“Jack?” he called out softly, figuring if _anyone_ was down here at all, the Irishman would probably be the more likely one he was gonna find.

He wandered amongst the bookcases-for a library, there really weren’t that many of them-and suddenly stopped when he thought he saw a mop of dark green hair off in the corner behind the last bookcase. “Oh, Jack, thank god-” he began, but when he reached the end of the aisle that led into the corner-

Nothing.

He was in this room alone, he was pretty sure of that now.

His expression faded to a frown. “Great. Now I’m probably going nuts,” he grumbled. He headed back over to the door and unlocked it, checking around, then heading back out into the corridor while closing the door behind him. This was starting to become par the course for him. Too bad it was more of a life-and-death situation than just some kind of Team Edge game, like Super Hot IRL. “Where the hell are you guys?”

Okay, so this was a bust. So try again...upstairs, maybe? Yeah, upstairs. Second floor, at least, and checking his timer, it looked like he still had plenty of time. He headed back down the hall, up the stairs, looking from one side of the house to the other. “Hm…”

Front of the house? He headed to the front, turned right, tried the key in the lock. Nope. Turned to head back down the other hallway, the one the safe room was on. There actually was that second door right across from it. Tried the key-

Click.

“Okay, so this one goes to that one,” Mark whispered as he pulled the door open. “Goddammit, are we gonna end up needing a key for _every_ room in this place?” But he shook his head, heading on inside and down an extremely narrow corridor to get to the room-not too long, but he’d _really_ hate to be in this place while trouble lurked outside. If that thing suspected anyone was in here, all it’d probably have to do was stand in the corridor and anyone would easily go running right into it.

He tried not to think about it, taking just a second to backtrack and lock the door behind him, then head back down the corridor and into the next room.

Like many of the rooms he’d been inside thus far, this one was fairly expansive and probably either a dining room or a conference room. There was a long table with a few chairs in the center of the room, with a set of bookshelves in the far corner and cabinets in all the other ones. In the center of the back wall, a white fireplace filled with ashes.

Well, obviously his friends weren’t in here, but if this place was running in video game logic like he was starting to suspect it was, maybe there was a key to another room in here-or perhaps a clue as to what happened to Felix, at least? When they heard the noise downstairs, it _did_ kinda sound a bit like the ruckus might’ve gone down in here, so-

His thoughts were interrupted by a light clatter as his foot bumped into something. He looked down, staring at the camcorder on the floor.

“Oh no…” he muttered softly, reaching down to pick it up with a frown. He straightened back up and looked around. “...Felix?” he called out softly, even though he knew there wasn’t any place one could actually hide in this room. He stared at the camera in his hands for a long while. If anything was recorded on there...did he _really_ want to see what was on it?

Until he knew for sure, as far as he was concerned, Felix was still alive somewhere. But what if the worst-case scenario had gone down and it was all on tape?

Would he really be strong enough to watch it?

Probably not, but he really did need to find out what had happened to Felix.

So he walked over to the table, leaning back on it and fumbling with the camera a little bit. It actually still worked and as he suspected, was actually still recording, which was definitely a relief. Staring intently at the screen, he muttered, “Okay, uh-stop the recording-” he muttered once he noticed it was still going. “Find the last video clip aaaand habooski-”

_“So we just heard some noise upstairs and we think that it’s probably the crew trying to prank us. Those fucking slackers,” Felix said, the camera focusing in on his face. “So I’m on my way upstairs to investigate. Best-case scenario? I_ might _be able to get the jump on them before they even get the chance to try anything on us.” He smirked, flipping the camera’s focus to what was in front of him. Not too much yet, just house, house and more house. Definitely the route just taken from the stairs to get to the conference room._

_The focus was briefly turned back on Felix as he grinned mischievously into the camera. “Alright, pretty sure this is the room we’ve been hearing them banging around in,” he said, voice low. Then his tone turned tense. “Bros...pray for me that I’m not about to walk in on some murderous ghosts. But if it just so happens that I do…” Dramatic pause. “Tell Edgar that I hate him.”_

_He chuckled and shook his head, looking back up before turning the camera’s focus again on what all was in front of him as he headed down the narrow corridor to get to the room. As he did, his voice escalated to a shout behind the camera._

_“ALRIGHT ALL YOU LAZY FUCKS! YOU DARE CALL ME HERE THINKING THAT YOU CAN PRANK-”_

_As the room came into view, the creature from earlier could be seen on the other side of the room, its back to the camera. Felix’s words fell short for just a second before he chuckled-although one who actually knew him personally would be able to pick up that tiny tinge of nerves with it. “Okay, seriously you guys, what the actual fuck is this?”_

_And that’s when the thing turned around, staring back at the camera._

_Staring at Felix._

_The view shifted backwards a bit, it was obvious Felix had taken a step back. “Uh-” A pause, then, “Haha, very cute, guys. Very cheesy, but I guess I can give you all a couple points for details-”_

_And that was when the creature rushed forward. A sudden loud string of Swedish curses filled the air and the vision of the screen blurred as it was dropped before settling with an unmoving view of the room from the floor. Heavy footsteps-no doubt the creature’s-could be heard fading from the drop point and then...nothing. Pretty much nothing._

“Oh, nonono,” Mark muttered, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. He fiddled with the buttons a little bit, suspecting that it was probably in vain but nonetheless. Maybe Felix had doubled back around at some point, maybe there was something else, anything that might’ve happened after the camera was dropped? He watched the video fast-forward, even though he was realistically expecting nothing further until his own discovery of it.

But then...something.

The screen started to go into brief flickers of green static as a pair of feet walked directly in front of the lens, dark and not well-rendered due to proximity. He couldn’t tell whose they were, just that they were wearing black sneakers. It was kinda difficult to tell-

And then, high above the camera, the sound of a giggle that was somewhat pitched and borderline manic. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, not just because of the vibe he was getting off of it but also because _goddamn,_ even with the edge of distortion to it, why did that voice sound so familiar?

He almost missed the phrase that was whispered by the person, blinking and rewinding it a little to go back. The giggle was something he could probably go without hearing a second time, but he paused following it and turned the volume up all the way in order to hear the person better. Even then, although he was able to make it out this time, it was only just barely.

_“And so it begins.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is officially up and posted! Fair warning, things are about to get get kinda nuts in the next chapter (because they haven't already?). Once again, thanks so much for the kudos, comments, and bookmark! It really helps my inspiration and as something that's supposed to have a bit of mystery, assures me that I'm still actually keeping people in suspense. So as always, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	6. Chapter 5

“Okay, what the actual-okay,” Mark breathed out, shaking his head and turning off the camera to set it down on the table. He cast his gaze around the room again. So, from the sound of it, they weren’t the only person here. Maybe. But who the hell else would even be in a place like this?

Well, maybe there was a clue to that lying around this room or at least another key or...or something. He began walking around the room, checking each of the drawers, checking the bookshelves, the chairs. If this wasn’t a thing, he could maybe check upstairs, but he wasn’t hedging any bets that there were going to be any doors unlocked. But so far...really nothing.

A glint caught the corner of his eye and he turned to face the fireplace. “Could it be…?” he began, heading over to it. “Maybe.”

What was the creature even doing in this room to begin with? Just chilling? What did it do when it wasn’t chasing them or didn’t have any victims in the house? He shook his head. What the hell did it matter? He didn’t really have the desire to stick around and study it.

He reached down, shifting a bit through the ashes. A scrap of burnt paper gave him pause, to which he withdrew it to study for a second. He peered at the text scribbled on the paper-yeah, it definitely looked handwritten.

“Found out what’s happening to… told me before that thing killed... now. No stopping him. Can’t...Writing this as a reminder….save us... Do not-”

The man frowned slightly at its words. First off, there were huge chunks of the text missing, disappeared into blackened char and holes on the page. Second off and infinitely more disturbing: the handwriting. It...it looked like his own. _Exactly_ like his own. “It...it’s gotta be a coincidence. It just _looks_ similar, that’s all,” he murmured although now thoroughly unnerved, absently shoving the paper into his pocket as he turned his attention back to the pile of ashes. Still, he couldn’t quite shake the eerie feeling…

Another shift through and his fingers finally touched something solid, metal and a little heavy. Eyeing the key he pulled from the ashes, he finally rose to his feet again and looked around the room. “Alright,” he murmured. “Now to figure out which door _this key_ goes to.”

His eyes fell on the camcorder nearby, a grim reminder that made his frown return, but he walked over and picked it up anyway. “Alright…” he murmured. “May as well get you while I’m in here.”

As he fiddled with it, he suddenly paused, an idea coming to mind.

What if-

Maybe-

Huh.

Yeah, okay. Just in case.

He flipped the camcorder screen open again and turned the lens on himself, hitting record.

“Hey everyone, it’s Mark. Since I found Felix’s camera, I figured I may as well leave an update on here. This is still kind of a thing I’m thinking up as I go, but I figure since this place is so big and there’s always the potential of us getting all split up again… I mean, we’re all kinda split up right now…” He ran a hand back through his hair, glancing towards the door, then back at the camera. “And while I know this thing belongs to Felix and all, I’m probably gonna leave this somewhere out in the open. And hopefully, _hopefully_ one of you guys is gonna manage to find it. Or both of you.” He paused briefly to take a deep breath before adding, “Yeah, even better if it’s that.”

“Now, I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m okay. I’m okay, Tyler is okay, Ethan is okay. We’re doing our best to kinda come up with a safe house, but I’m not gonna say where because…” He paused. Would the creature be able to understand any of this? Even figure out how to work the camera? Tyler suggested that it probably wasn’t very bright, and god only knew if it even understood English. Still, he wasn’t sure he was willing to take that kind of risk until he had more information. “The last thing we need happening is an ambush or something. Just know that I am out there looking for you. So until I find you, find a place to take shelter in, lock the door behind you, and hide if need be. And potentially make a quick video on here to provide an update of your own.”

He hesitated for a long moment, not even wanting to _think_ about the worst case scenario much less suggest it out loud. But finally he added, “I want to make sure that everyone else out there is alive and safe too.” Taking in a deep breath to prepare himself, he glanced back towards the door again. “Alright, I’m gonna leave it here and head out now. Felix? Jack? If you come across this before I find you...please let me know you’re okay. Stay safe and hang tight. And hopefully we’ll all be together soon.”

With that, he hit ‘stop’ and lowered the camcorder, closing it and turning it off. The action of making a video, even if it was just something of a vlog, was somewhat comforting in a way. A small bastion of familiarity in this otherwise eerie place, and hopefully an effort that was going to ultimately pay off. Looking around, he shoved the lighter and hairspray into his jacket pockets, reaching over to grab a nearby chair with his newly-freed hand and heading back down the narrow corridor. “C’mon chair,” he muttered. “You’re coming with me.”

When he reached the end of the corridor, he paused and set down the chair, quickly unlocking the door and stepping out cautiously. He reached back in and picked up the chair, heading back and around corner into the main hallway of the second floor. “Alright…” he murmured to himself, looking around. “Hm…”

Finally satisfied with a location, he set the chair against the wall about midway down the hall. Nothing else was around it and he really hadn’t seen much in the way of random chairs outside the rooms, so hopefully this would stand out pretty easily. Not easily enough that the monster was going to take too much notice or desire to smash it all up into little bits, if all went well, but enough. He set the camera down on it before pulling the new key back out of his pocket and looking around. “Right,” he muttered. “ _Now_ to figure out which door you go to…” 

 

* * *

 

This was a bad idea.

Going upstairs to investigate-especially _alone._ Renting this place out to begin with. Oh sure, it all seemed fine at the time, but how the fuck was he supposed to know that it was home to some actual legitimate monster? And yes, he did consider for a while that it was maybe just one big prank. A _really_ well-made one, granted, on Scare Pewdiepie levels or better, but just a prank nonetheless.

And then that thing freaking _rushed_ him and made it very clear that it wasn’t just wearing some costume.

Felix sighed, looking around the room. He’d only recently come out of his hiding spot (he was actually a bit shocked although infinitely relieved that _thing_ didn’t even check the armoire) and knew he should probably be rejoining the others, but he honestly wasn’t that thrilled with the idea of leaving the room after he’d locked it-especially if he had to travel on his own. So he’d taken a bit to fumbling around on his phone, which was so far proving further unproductiveness. He found to his dismay that for some reason on top of making the clock on his phone wig out, he wasn’t getting any signal-wifi or otherwise. There was no way to message the others in this place, no way he could call emergency services to send in a freaking _swat team_ to escort them out and raze this damned place, so he was probably going to have to man the fuck up and go out there. And all the while, _hope_ that the monster hadn’t found them yet.

God, he was probably gonna sound like an idiot going to them about this. After all, he barely believed it himself.

Still, he honestly didn’t want to be in this place another second if he could help it.

Well, at least his crew was legit in freaking out about this place. He’d have to give them that much. He shook his head, letting out a sigh and cursing softly in Swedish (he’d long-since switched back over, considering he was here on his own). If not for the fact that everyone’s lives were probably in danger, he’d be worrying about what they were gonna do with the livestream now, but...no. No, fuck all of that right now, man. They’d figure it out later.

First priority was getting the hell out of this place alive.

He sucked in a deep breath, steeling himself as he made his way over to the door. He’d feel a lot more confident and reassured if he actually found some kind of weapon in this place, but nothing really seemed all that useable. Hell-he’d probably have more luck downstairs getting something from the kitchen or the overall equipment they’d brought in.

But he’d have to fucking _get_ to it first.

He took in another deep breath, a frown on his face, but twisted the lock while half-expecting the door to suddenly slam back into his face from the force of that monster. But thankfully...nothing.

Nothing yet, at least.

He twisted the knob and warily pulled it open with a soft _creak_ (a noise far too loud for his liking in this case), looking around before stepping out. Okay, looked like the coast was clear. Now was his his chance. He moved to dart down the corridor; stairs should be just around the corner-

As he rounded the corner, he suddenly slowed, noticing a figure heading up the stairs to the third floor. It wasn’t the monster, no, it was way too small and way too _human._ In fact-

“Jack?” he asked softly.

He was pretty sure the Irishman didn’t hear him, as the floorboards to the stairs groaned softly from the man headed up the stairs. A light frown of confusion and irritation crossed his face and he cast a quick glance to the staircase that led down to the first floor, feeling a pang of reluctance. Dammit, he just wanted to go back downstairs, regroup and be done with this. But if Jack was up here-

Another Swedish curse slipped from his lips as he quickly headed up the stairs and looked around, his voice dropping down to a called whisper. “Goddammit, Jack-” He paused at the top of the stairs, taking into account the overall area of this place. So far, from first glance, at least, it seemed a whole lot smaller than the first two floors. A small single hallway this time, which another staircase was in, and then a door on one side, two on the other. He automatically tried the door to his left, locked. Tried the door to his right, locked. Glanced back at the staircase to the fourth floor and the door next to that, tried it. Again, locked.

“What the actual hell, you fucking potato bastard,” Felix whispered, running a hand back through his hair and heading up the stairs. “Where the fuck are you even going?”

The last thing he wanted to do was climb more stairs and put himself even _further_ from the exit, but that’s what he found himself doing as he headed up to the fourth floor, looking around.

“Jack?” he called out softly as he looked around. “Jack? Where the hell are you?”

This floor wasn’t any bigger than the previous one, this time with only two doors. Try the room to his right, locked. The room to his left-

The knob actually cooperated with this one and he pushed it open, looking around. “Jack?” he whispered, stepping inside. This actually looked like it could’ve been a small loft or something-three sofas with a coffee table, a chest of drawers and some shelves, an armoire, two beds-

No Jack, of course (of _course_ ). But there was a switch on the wall in the corner.

He might’ve been more curious as to what the hell it went to if he wasn’t anxious to get the fuck out of this place with everyone as quickly as possible. The man shook his head with a sigh and turned back to the door to open it but froze, hearing heavy footsteps on the outside of the door.

Oh.

Oh no.

Shit.

His eyes did a quick sweep around before he bolted for the first thing they landed on: one of the beds. He immediately got down low to crawl under, ended up sliding underneath instead-good enough. Probably better, in fact, because it was right at about that moment the door flew open and the creature walked inside.

The Swede scarcely breathed as he watched its bare feet slowly walk around the room, pausing in about the spot he was pretty sure the armoire was in and hearing the doors swing softly open. Oh-god, he was lucky he didn’t pick that spot. _Obscenely_ lucky he didn’t go with what he did last time. Hell man, after the first time running and hiding from that thing, he didn’t even think it was smart enough to actually _check_ hiding spots.

But then realization hit him soon afterwards: shit, that thing was checking hiding spots now. In which case, it was probably only a matter of time…

A second set footsteps drew his attention back towards the door, seeing a pair of sneakered human feet walk in. The footsteps were soft and light and seemed oddly calm, and he quickly saw why: surely the creature saw the person by now, but it wasn’t attacking. So...what, this thing was like this person’s pet or something?

Well, either way, it was probably bad news. Bad news for _himself_ , especially. He had to find a way out of here, that thing was going to be checking underneath the bed any second now. And he couldn’t just make a run for the door, that new guy was gonna be standing right in front of it-

And that’s when he noticed the hole in the floor, right under the other bed.

Could go to just an indent in the floor and trap him, could take him to a whole other floor. He wouldn’t know unless he tried.

Either way, he definitely couldn’t stay where he was now.

He silently scooted to the edge as much as what was safely possible, twisting around awkwardly for a second to try and make sure the creature’s back was turned. The second it turned around, he didn’t hesitate. He gave himself one final shove and quickly rolled the handful of paces over to the other bed, slipping under much faster than he meant to, and certainly lacking any particular form of grace. He quickly heard a voice start to say...something...and footsteps both heavy and light race to the bed he’d rolled under, but everything was now crammed into the span of a split second.

There was no time to prepare. A fraction of a second after his body made contact with the floor, his head was soon to follow. His vision suddenly exploded before his eyes but his head bounced back up and he just barely managed to cling to a stunned consciousness after the impact. A wave of pain shot from his back to the rest of his body with reverberations especially through his right shoulder, arm, hip. That was the worst of it, but generally speaking, the pain was just...everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. He blinked a few times, staring dumbly up at the hole he’d just fallen through, sprawled across the wooden floor beneath him. Light suddenly shone down through the hole as the monster gave the bed a shove to look down at him. That face full of sharp, gnashing teeth was enough to give the Swede a shot of adrenaline that immediately had him rolling back up to his feet, ignoring the pain that echoed throughout his body, and bolting for the door. He didn’t give much of a look around the room-at the moment he didn’t particularly care to. The creature and its...owner or whatever… _knew_ he was down here, so if he was going to hide, no use doing so in here.

So he hit the door, gave the knob a frantic twist, got nothing. Locked. He twisted the lock and threw the door open just as he felt the floorboards underneath him shake from behind. Stumbling out, he raced for the stairs to head back down to the second floor. Should he hurry on down to the first floor, get to the others? _Could he?_ He’d already run from this creature once, he knew it was pretty fast and now it was right on his heels-

Probably better not to lure it right back to everyone else.

As he rushed down the stairs at top speed, he suddenly collided with...someone, practically knocking them over backwards. He blinked a few times with wide eyes, realizing it was Mark.

“Felix?” Mark asked, struggling to regain his balance, which was helped somewhat by Felix reaching out to grab his arm and pull him forward. “Felix what the hell-”

“No time to explain, c’mon!” Felix interrupted, dragging Mark a few paces from the stairs before releasing him to run on his own. He could hear that thing coming down the stairs, rounding the banister to follow them down the hallway. Oh god, once it saw them round the corner it was going to have a pretty good idea of where they’d gone to. There was really only one room down that corridor where they could hide, but it was the only thing he was sure was unlocked on this floor.

Around the corner, to the door, yank it open-the pair was soon inside a bedroom with a single bed and an armoire. “Go! Hide!” Felix ordered, moving to slam the door shut behind them and lock it. The door was caught however by the monster, which gave it a sudden and powerful shove forward in an attempt to get it back open. Mark stopped for only a split second before turning on his heel and rushing back to the door to ram it shut. Felix’s hand quickly slid over to the doorknob to twist the lock secure and took several steps back, followed by Mark as they both stared at the door with wide eyes and held breaths. Neither dared to say a word as the door shook once, twice, three times, the doorknob rattling loudly and violently.

Finally Felix snapped out of his spell, waving Mark to the back corner of the room. “Go, go, go,” he mouthed, quickly making his way over to the bed and easing down to scoot underneath the bed. Hiding probably wasn’t going to do them too much good if the monster still managed to get in at this point, but at least the sentiment was there.

Mark didn’t have to be told twice; he quickly made his way over to the armoire and climbed in, shutting the doors behind him as best he could. The pair listened to the racket being made on the door in baited silence before everything went completely still. Straining their ears, they could almost swear they heard the quick footsteps of the thing fading away, back down the corridor. There were a few more moments of complete silence and total stillness before Mark slowly and hesitantly pushed open one of the doors to the armoire to peek out-then softly and carefully step out and take a few steps forward.

“Okay,” he whispered. “I-” He paused with a touch of paranoia, listening once more so his words could be met with greater certainty. “I think it’s gone now.” He hurried over to help Felix out from under the bed, shaking his head with relief. “Thank god you’re okay.”

“Uh-well I’m _alive_ , yeah,” Felix replied as he scooted out from under the bed, too exhausted and sore to refuse the aid. “Freaked out as fuck, bu-ahhh-!” The yelp escaped him before he was able to bite it back, pain shooting through him as he started to rise to his feet. Several Swedish curses slipped again as he quickly sat down on the bed behind him, hand going to his back with a cringe on his face.

Mark’s expression was one of pure alarm. “Felix?!” he exclaimed, already starting to look the man over for any visible injuries.

“Ah-fuck-” Felix panted as the pain reverberated outward to the rest of his limbs and into his head and-god. Just. This was a night of pure suck and that was the _nicest_ way of describing it. The adrenaline was already starting to drain from his body, leaving behind not just the soreness from literally everywhere, but also a pounding, throbbing pain in his head.

“Where does it hurt?” Mark asked with worry. “What happened?”

“My head. My...back, everywhere,” Felix replied. “I-fuck.” He shook his head. “I was up on the fourth floor-thought I saw Jack head up there.” He frowned. “I tried checking the only room up there that was unlocked but I didn’t see him. Then that monster busted in with its freakish owner-”

“Wait, that thing is someone’s _pet?_ ” Mark interrupted, eyes wide.

“I-I guess so, Mark, I don’t fucking know. It wasn’t attacking him anyway-” Felix shook his head again, but this time winced at the movement. “I only barely managed to hide, but that monster was checking spots this time. I guess the guy in there with it was getting it to look or something-”

“Okay-”

“I figured it was only a matter of time before they found me, so I rolled out from my hiding spot and through a hole in the floor.”

Mark stared at the man for a moment, processing all of this. Finally he repeated, “You fell through a...hole in the floor-”

“Yeah, yeah. Down into some room on the third.”

Mark glanced from the wooden floor to the ceiling, imagining a fall from that height before shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. “Holy shit, Felix. That’s gotta be at least ten feet. Did you at least try and land, uh, decent or anything?”

“What?” Felix frowned at him, his look and tone bordering on defensive. “No. There was a fuckin’ monster chasing after me; I only had time to roll over and fall through.”

“You could’ve broken your back,” Mark scolded. “Or your neck, or-or gotten a concussion-”

“But I _didn’t. Christ,_ Mark,” Felix countered, the defensive tone becoming more firm and bordering on exasperation. “I was able to get up and run, wasn’t I?”

“Because you were pumped full of adrenaline,” Mark argued. “But try and get up now and-” But then he sighed, shaking his head and taking several steps away to pace. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m just-” He ran his hands back through his hair as he exhaled. “I’m not exactly sure what we’re supposed to do now. What we _can_ do now. If your movement is limited-”

“It’s not so limited that I can’t get down the stairs and out the door,” Felix cut in, watching the American. “Look-where is Tyler and Ethan?”

“Safe. We made up a safe room,” Mark replied. “It’s on this floor, towards the front of the house.”

“So we round them up, we get to the car-”

“We still have to find Jack,” Mark pointed out.

Felix blinked, then scowled. “Goddammit. Right,” he cursed. “That freaking potato-” He sucked in a breath. “Alright. We find Jack. At least we might have an idea as to where he is now. _Then_ we’re gone.” Noticing the look on Mark’s face, he could already feel his heart sink. “...What?”

“Well...there’s the other problem,” Mark reluctantly confessed. “We’re locked in.”

Felix stared at him. “...What?”

“Tyler and Ethan tried the front door earlier. It’s locked. _I_ tried it earlier. Still locked. Unless you’ve maybe got the front door key…?”

Any hope and determination fell from the Swede’s face. “Gate key,” he replied. “What about the windows?”

“Barred up. At least on the first and second floors. I haven’t even checked out any of the floors above here-not that I have any idea how we’d escape through the windows from the third story or higher anyway.”

Felix whispered something Swedish under his breath-whether it was a creative curse he hadn’t heard yet or just some sort of remark, Mark couldn’t tell. But then the Swede pressed his face into his hands and let out a sigh.

“...We’re in deep shit, aren’t we?”

“Probably can’t go much deeper,” Mark agreed, but then made a face. “...I probably shouldn’t say that. I’d just end up tempting fate.”

“Yeah, don’t...don’t do that,” Felix agreed, starting to sit back but then breathing in sharply and adjusting his posture back again.

This time it was Mark’s turn to stare before he finally snapped into action. “Yeah, okay. We’re definitely getting you to the safe room.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Felix asked, a mix of worry, doubt and fear edging in his voice. “I mean, I can barely _walk-_ ”

“You can lean on me,” Mark offered. “Like I said, the safe room’s not far. I think we’ll be able to make it.”

“And if the monster comes? Or its freakish owner?”

“First of all, we don’t actually _know_ what the deal is with the person you saw. I think we need more information on that before we go passing judgement,” Mark pointed out, although he didn’t look completely convinced with his own statement. “Second, you’re right. You can barely walk, so I really don’t want to leave you alone in here. Besides, I managed to grab a couple of things along the way to ensure at least _some_ form of protection, so if you’re gonna travel with anyone, I’m probably your best bet.”

“Please tell me those things include a machine gun and ammo,” Felix sighed.

“Nah. Hairspray and a lighter,” Mark replied. Noticing Felix’s incredulous look, he affirmed, “ _Yeah._ ”

“We’re fucked.”

“Try not to think about it.”

Mark’s reassurances were interrupted by a knock on the door, drawing the attention of the both of them. Silence permeated the room, broken only by the sound of another round of knocking on the door. And then finally, a voice cut through, muffled by the wood between them, but unexpectedly familiar.

“Uh-hello? Is anybody in there?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins indeed. We have our first person now down for the count and things are getting _weird. And_ we'll be seeing the arrival of some new characters within the next few chapters, so keep an eye out. In the meantime, thanks so much for reading and giving me your feedback and such thus far! I can't stress enough just how much it helps for my continual writing and posting. So as always, if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	7. Chapter 6

The men exchanged startled looks, each daring the other to identify what they were both already thinking. Finally Felix mouthed the name.

“ _Cry?_ ”

Mark went over to the door, hesitant for a moment as he eyed Felix. If Felix needed to hide first-

But no, the other man was motioning for him to go on ahead and open the door, to which Mark finally nodded, passing him the lighter and hairspray. If this was some kind of trap or the monster somehow got in, he could run if needed, maybe even draw it away somehow. But he’d be damned if Felix was gonna be stuck there without _at least_ a weapon. Felix accepted the items with a bit more relief than he probably wanted to admit, readying them as he pointed the hairspray at the door.

“Okay. Here we go,” he muttered as a signal for Mark to go on ahead.

Mark quickly unlocked the door and pulled it slightly open, peering outside. The sight before him caught him so off guard that he almost slammed the door in the poor guy’s face, but in fairness, _who wore a mask at a time like this?_

“Is it Cry?” Felix asked anxiously, shifting a bit in an attempt to get a look and unable to fully suppress a look of pain as he did.

“Yeah, it’s-I mean, I _think_ it’s-”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Cry interrupted. “You mind letting me in? Kinda feeling like a sitting duck out here.”

Mark pulled the door open wider, just enough for the masked man to slip in. Once inside, the door was shut and locked again. He turned back to the others, feeling a sense of confusion above all else.

Cry was the one to break the silence.

“Uh-” he began awkwardly but as calmly as ever, eyeing Felix. “You mind putting that stuff down? I’d really rather not get torched.”

“Oh-uh-yeah-” Felix said sheepishly, lowering the hairspray and the lighter. Staring at Cry for a few moments longer, he asked, “Cry, what the hell? What’re you doing with a _mask_ on?”

“It’s Halloween, I thought it’d be kinda fun-” Cry began, but then shoved his hands into his pockets, looking away. The other two couldn’t see the man’s face, but the overall body language hinted at embarrassment and self-consciousness. “Shut up. _I_ like it, okay?”

“Cry, when did you even get here?” Mark questioned. “For that matter, _how_ did you even get in here? The front door is locked.”

“Yeah, uh, funny, that,” Cry replied. “Jack and I noticed the same thing earlier. I got here-what? Half an hour ago?-without any real problems. The door was unlocked when I stepped inside. It wasn’t until we actually tried getting the door open from the inside that we ran into some issues.”

“We’ll probably need to find a key,” Mark concluded. “Or a way to bust the door down.” He shook his head. “Anyway-you said you found Jack?” He glanced over at the door, then back at Cry. “Why isn’t he with you?”

“We were busy looking for everyone else downstairs and came up here just a few minutes ago,” Cry explained. “And we were in the process of checking all the doors when we saw the monster. It saw us, we split-in more ways than one. Jack took off in one direction, me in the other-” He shook his head, gentle urgency beginning to weave its way into his voice. “It decided to follow him instead. Which, on that note, I think we really need to go find him. Try and get to him before that monster does.”

“Believe me, I’ve been wanting to do the same thing,” Mark replied. “Unfortunately-” He glanced over at Felix, who made a face and looked away, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. “Felix is hurt. Injured his back somehow, might have a concussion? He fell through the floor upstairs, so-”

“Holy shit. You _fell through the floor_?” Cry questioned, staring at Felix.

“Yeah,” Felix replied, looking back up at him. His response made it seem like it was the most obvious choice in the world. “Well I mean, it was either that or become monster chow, either one-”

“Yeah, no, I...I think I can see why you’d choose to drop on through the floor then. Nobody wants to become monster chow. I can respect that,” Cry agreed calmly. But then judging by the tone that followed and the way he shifted, his companions suspected he was making a face underneath the mask. “Well I mean-can you even _walk?_ ”

“Sorta,” Felix replied, unable to keep the mild frustration at himself and his situation from his face and tone. “I managed to run from that thing when it dropped down through the hole and ran after me.”

“While his adrenaline was still going, we’re pretty sure,” Mark clarified. “I think he’s gonna be moving better if he has someone to help support him. Tyler and Ethan and I set up a safe room in the left-hand corridor if you’re walking to the front of the house from here. I would feel better if we could get Felix over there before continuing the search for Jack.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Cry seconded. He looked over at Felix. “Okay! So one of us hangs on to the-uh-flamethrower-” He paused and it was obvious he was probably giving them both a look underneath the mask. “...We really have fallen into some kind of horror game, haven’t we?”

“It’s what I’ve been saying since this all started,” Mark agreed.

“Ugh. I don’t wanna play this game anymore. Okay,” Cry noted before continuing. “And the other person acts as support.”

Mark looked over at Felix. “Okay, uh-we’ll pass the flamethrower over to Cry, I guess,” he instructed. “And I’m gonna-here…” He moved to Felix’s side as the Swede passed the lighter and hairspray over to Cry, putting an arm behind him in support. “And on three...two…”

The two rose together, but only partway and not without a hiss of pain escaping from Felix. Mark cast a worried look to his friend. “You sure you’re gonna be able to manage?”

“The faster we get there, the better,” Felix replied, too occupied in trying to deal with the pain to come up with much of a smartass remark.

Mark nodded, although the concern on his face was still obvious. Glancing over at Cry, he nodded towards the door. “Well, uh-lead the way.”

Cry nodded, moving on ahead of the two (he really didn’t want to, in all honesty, but he wasn’t about to let an injured friend up in the front) and unlocking the door. He paused, holding up a hand to the other two to stay put as he opened up the door and slipped out about halfway to look around. After a couple of seconds he ducked back inside and nodded, silently ushering for them to follow. Mark and Felix shuffled after him as quickly as they could manage, in which case he kept his pace deliberately slower than he would’ve preferred had he been on his own.

They luckily managed to get to the safe room without incident, but when they arrived…

Cry gave a quick knock on the door as instructed.

Nothing.

“...Uhm…” he began, glancing helplessly back at Mark, who was frowning. He turned back to the door and called through it softly, “Hello?”

“Hang on…” Mark muttered, shuffling himself and Felix in closer. With an outstretched arm, he gave it a quick knock himself. “Ethan?” he called quietly through the door. “Tyler? Open up, it’s Mark.”

Still no answer.

“Are you sure this is the right room?” Felix whispered, glancing over at Mark.

“Yeah, I’m sure-” Mark started, but his words fell short when Cry reached forward and turned the handle, pushing the door open slightly.

Mark froze, eyes wide. He glanced over at Cry. “Cry-uh-” He moved to shift Felix over to the other man, stepping forward once he was freed up. Walking a few more steps forward and into the room, his eyes swept over the area. Quickly crossing the room, he checked each of the hiding spots.

No monsters in this room, at least.

But no Tyler or Ethan, either.

He stood frozen for a few long moments, still staring into the armoire as if expecting Ethan to suddenly phase into existence before him. A chill of panic was starting to creep through his veins and he was desperately struggling to stave it off-for the sake of the others if not for himself.

“Hey, uh-Mark?” Cry called over softly, finally breaking the silence. “...What happened to the others?”

And that was the million dollar question. Mark pulled out his phone, checking his timer-he still had a good eight minutes before their agreed half-hour ended. Why the hell did they leave this room _early?_ Was the room compromised? Did the monster manage to get in somehow?

...Were they even still alive at this point?

Okay. Okay, before his concerns spun _completely_ out of control, focus on what was right in front of him. Focus on the people present who needed safety right now. If Tyler and Ethan had to evacuate this place early, then clearly the safe room wasn’t really all that safe. Right? At any rate, it was enough to shake his faith in its integrity.

“Change of plans,” Mark suddenly said, turning around and walking quickly back out of the room, closing the door behind him. Yes. Talk about that rather than the question Cry just asked, because in all honesty, he didn’t have any answers to provide. “Let’s head back to the first room.”

“What?” Felix asked, a hint of a whine in his voice, but it was overshadowed by his confusion and worry. He let out a sigh, looking over at Cry. “Well-uh-”

“Yeah, let’s get you turned around,” Cry instructed, guiding Felix as they turned to go back to where they came. “C’mon, man.”

The group returned to the previous room as quickly as they could manage with Mark shutting and locking the door behind them and Cry easing Felix back down onto the bed.

“Well that was kinda…” Felix started to say, but one look at Mark’s frantic pacing made him shut his mouth for once. “Mark?”

“They left early. What the hell does that even _mean?_ The door was locked, they had hiding places. We agreed on thirty minutes before regrouping, not twenty,” Mark reasoned out quietly. “Tyler is stubborn as all hell but he’s not _stupid_ -” He suddenly stopped, turning to the pair. “I’m going back out there. I’m gonna check the camera first, see if they left anything on it. Then I’m gonna start searching the house for them, as well as Jack.”

“All by yourself?” Cry asked, sounding troubled. “That doesn’t sound safe.”

“It’s what I’ve been doing for a while now, believe me,” Mark assured, although it did little to boost his own confidence. “Besides-just gonna start out with getting the camera. Once I grab that, we can work out a new plan from there.”

“Well...alright,” Cry replied. “Do you want the flamethrower back?”

Mark hesitated. What kind of question was that? Of course he _wanted_ the flamethrower back. However-

“No. No, I want you to keep it on you for now,” Mark replied against his own better judgement. “Anything tries to jump me, at least I can run. If you’re staying with Felix, I need to be sure you guys can to hold your ground if necessary.”

“Comforting,” Felix muttered under his breath, looking away with a frown.

“I’ll be right back. Open the door when you hear two knocks,” Mark instructed, heading over to the door and slipping out before he could change his mind. It wasn’t a very long walk to get back out to the main second floor hallway, and when he reached it, he approached the camera. It looked like it’d been moved, although maybe not a whole lot.

“Tyler?” he called out softly as he looked around, treading cautiously. “Ethan?”

No answer. Reaching the chair, he grabbed up the camera and headed back to the newly-designated safe room faster than he would’ve cared to admit. Two quick knocks on the door and he was back inside, Cry locking the door back behind him.

“Hey, my camera,” Felix noted, eyeing it curiously.

Mark nodded. “Yeah, I found it in the conference room across from the old safe room. Where you dropped it, right?”

“Uh…” Felix nodded. “Yeah.”

“Well, this place is so big, I’m sure part of the problem is that we all just keep missing each other. And it’s a relief knowing that people are at least _alive_ . I figured it would be a little bit more convenient leaving videos for each other instead of writing notes. And maybe even a little more comforting?” He shrugged and Felix shrugged back. Turning on the camera, he checked the recordings and stopped on one with Tyler’s face on it. “Oh…” he muttered, selecting that one. “Tyler… _what?_ ”

_“Yeah, so this is Tyler and Ethan,” Tyler said, adjusting the camera a little bit to show himself and Ethan in the background. “We’ve been hiding out in the safe room waiting for Mark to get back with Jack and Felix. Unfortunately it has been forty-five minutes-”_

A confused frown jumped to Mark’s face. “What?” he demanded. “No it hasn’t-!”

 _“And Mark was supposed to be back fifteen minutes ago. Or at least give us some notification that he was still in good shape.” Tyler sighed, glancing back at Ethan, who shrugged. He turned back to the camera, expression showing that he was clearly not happy. “So now we’re… I guess gonna be looking for Mark and the others since we don’t have any idea how to get out of here. Not yet anyway. If any of you guys find a safe hiding spot,_ **_stay put_ ** _, we are coming to get you.”_

The video ended there, leaving Mark staring into the screen for several long moments. Cry finally shifted a bit. “Uh, Mark?” he finally asked. “Are you _sure_ the time on your phone’s okay?”

Mark blinked, then shook his head. “It’s not, I mean-it’s off by a few hours for some reason,” he confessed. “But I don’t quite understand how the _timer_ would screw up: a minute is still a minute and a half hour is still a half hour.”

“Hey, no, I believe you. I’m just thinking it’s a little weird,” Cry assured. “Jack seemed to be having some issues with his phone too, you know.”

Mark frowned. “He was?” he asked.

“Yeah, asked me to check the time for him,” Cry continued. “Didn’t really seem to bother him much otherwise though-ah-” The masked man hesitated for a moment, considering things. But finally he shook his head. “Nevermind.” Noticing the two men now staring at him, Cry shifted a bit uncomfortably. “...What?”

“Just sounded like you were about to say something else,” Felix noted, but finally shook his head. “Fuck. Okay. So our phones are-” He reached down to check his own phone, making a face at the recently-made cracks in the screen. Probably from impact when he fell. “Okay, well _my_ phone is definitely fucked. Both the screen and-” Double-checking the time, he continued, “Yep, the time’s still fucked up on my phone too. Son of a bitch. It’s been like that since I first saw the monster, at least. 9:48. We haven’t been in here for _that_ long, have we?”

Mark shook his head. “No, pretty sure we haven’t-” he said, checking his own phone. “I’ve got 4:26.”

“8:18,” Cry said, sticking his phone back into his pocket. “I think that’s the closest we’ve really got to accurate. Oh. And I’ve also got this one.” He pulled out another phone, holding it out. Mark frowned.

“That’s Ethan’s…” he noted softly, recognizing the case. “Where did you find it?”

“Downstairs in the kitchen area. It was one of the first places I checked,” Cry explained, handing it over to Mark for examination. “I was kinda wondering who it went to. It was laying in the middle of the floor…”

“Damn,” Mark murmured, looking it over. “Well at least you found it. And it looks pretty undamaged…”

Cry nodded, silence settling over the room for a spell. But finally he decided to break it.

“Hey, so I was thinking,” he spoke up, drawing the attention of his companions. “I’ve been considering our options and I think there might be a way for us to get out of here. Unfortunately, I also think you guys aren’t gonna like it.”

“Well when you start it off like that,” Felix started. He shook his head. “But okay-let’s hear it. Whatever it takes to get out of this place, right?”

“Well it’s just that-” Cry glanced back at the door, then back at the others. “You guys said that Team Edge and Ken were gonna be showing up a bit later anyway, right?”

A second for that to set it before Mark made a face and turned, pacing a few steps. “ _Dammit_ , that’s right. They’re gonna end up walking right into this like you did if we don’t get out of here soon-”

“Actually, I’m kind of counting on that,” Cry assured. “It takes someone from the outside to open the door, right? If one of us is already there waiting-”

Realization fell over the faces of his companions. “-Then we can warn them ahead of  time, maybe even keep the door open long enough for everyone to get out,” Mark finished.

“The problem is, someone has to look for the others, someone needs to be standing out in the open, close to the door…” Cry shifted his gaze to Felix. “And somebody’s gotta look out for Felix.”

An awkwardness settled in, but Felix quickly cleared his throat and shook his head. “Shit,” he muttered. To his companions, he said, “Uh-” He sighed. “Look, if it gets us out of here, just...do what you gotta do. I don’t wanna be the reason we’re trapped in here any longer than we need to be.”

“What? No.” Mark shook his head. “Felix, no-”

“We could try and get him somewhere downstairs, closer to the door,” Cry suggested, looking from one to the other. “Find him a decent hiding spot, make sure the door gets locked or something-”

“You’re not actually considering this, are you?” Mark asked incredulously. “We’re not leaving Felix alone-”

“Yes, you are,” Felix argued, even though his own argument was making him sick to his stomach. Or maybe that was whatever else was wrong with him. Giving Mark a firm look, he continued, “Mark-”

“No.”

“If we don’t take our chance when we have it, who knows when another one is gonna come around again.” Felix shook his head. “Besides, I don’t want anyone else getting trapped in here. Especially if we’re able to stop it from happening.”

Mark stared at Felix for a moment, torn before walking away again with a visible look of turmoil on his face. “But Felix, it isn’t just the monster. I mean-god, we don’t even know how you hurt yourself. You could have a concussion or some kind of internal injury or-”

“Then dammit, Mark, I need medical attention. And the only way we’re getting me _that_ is if we can somehow manage to escape from here,” Felix snapped. “Unless one of you guys actually learned something useful from Surgeon Simulator, I’m probably screwed either way if we don’t do what needs to be done.”

Cry watched Felix for a while before finally looking up at Mark. “It probably is our best bet, Mark,” he seconded gently. “I mean, I’ll agree that it’s a shitty situation and I don’t like the idea of leaving Felix on his own like this either. But like he said, he’s going to need medical attention. And we need to round up the others _and_ we’ve gotta have somebody keeping an eye on the door. If my phone’s right on the time, it’s already getting kinda late. I imagine it won’t be too long before the others show up here.”

Mark bit his lip and looked away, a hand tangled in his hair. They were right. He _knew_ they were right. And that was part of what made this so hard.

“...Where are we gonna hide him?” he asked. “The kitchen area’s a no-go, there’s a couple bathrooms-”

“Yeah. Yeah, I saw them,” Cry agreed. “The library too-”

Mark frowned, briefly distracted from his distress. “Library?”

“Yeah, right next to the kitchen area. It’s where I found Jack,” Cry explained. He reached up to rub the back of his neck and shuffled a little. “Uh-but there’s not much of a hiding place there either. Jack and I hid behind the far bookcase when the monster walked in and that worked, but we really just got lucky. A few extra steps and it probably would’ve seen us.” Thinking on it for a minute, he added, “I do think I remember seeing two more doors down there though.”

“I tried them out a bit earlier. They’re locked,” Mark replied bitterly, shaking his head. But then suddenly he blinked a few times, his head perking up in realization. “...They’re locked,” he repeated as he made his way over to the bookshelves and began to check around. His companions watched him for a couple of minutes like he’d just grown a second head.

“Uh...Mark? What are you doing?” Felix finally asked.

“This place practically runs on video game logic,” Mark explained as he checked behind each of the books. “I mean, it’s still a too little early to tell for sure, but I’ve started noticing there’s a key hidden in just about every room so far. The kitchen, the conference room...and occasionally in the weirdest places. It’s really just a matter of _finding_ them.”

“Oh yeah…” Cry noted in realization. “There _was_ a key in the kitchen-lounge area. That’s how I was able to get into the library.”

When it clicked, Mark stopped and frowned, looking back at Cry. “Wait…” He turned fully to face him, a book still in hand. “You needed a _key_ to get into the library?”

Cry blinked. “Yeah,” he replied. “What of it?”

“If you had the key…” Mark’s frown deepened. “Then how the hell did _Jack_ get in there?”

Cry shook his head. “Well I- I didn’t ask,” he replied. “I guess I just figured the door was unlocked when he went in there.”

“No, that door was locked ever since we got here,” Mark replied, troubled.

“Maybe there are two keys?” Felix suggested, starting to give a shrug but abruptly deciding against it.

“Well...we can ask him next time we see him,” Cry suggested, walking over to help Mark. “In the meantime, we probably should find that key, assuming that there even is one.”

Mark nodded, although it was slow, distracted. “Yeah,” he agreed softly, reaching up to replace the book.

Cry grabbed one of the books to check behind it (or even in it-he was actually giving a few of these a good shake) but winced when the movement caused one of the neighboring books to fall to the side, knocking over the small clock next to it. The already precariously-perched clock tumbled off the edge of the shelf, clattering noisily to the floor-

_A cell…_

_He was suddenly in a room with a cell, trapped behind its bars with everybody else. Everybody except Jack, go figure, who was standing outside the door. The Irishman just came back and…_

_Yeah, Jack was about to open the door. Now he remembered. Something was still kinda bothering him about the Irishman-well, a few things that weren’t coming to mind specifically at the moment-but he’d ask once they were out._

_Jack reached into his jacket pocket, seeming to search for a moment before removing a key and unlocking it. He pulled the cell door open, backing away with the movement and to allow everyone to filter out._

_“You mind explaining just what the heck that was all about?” Ken demanded._

_Jack blinked again, almost lazily, then turned his gaze to the door he just came in through. His face...something was wrong with his face. It looked normal but something- “Well I mean, I could,” he replied, a sadistically mischievous grin playing at his lips. “But I figured ye’d want those last moments for saying yer prayers instead.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a bit late guys! But here's the next chapter and-well again, weird shit is starting to go down. Thanks for all the support so far, it's a definite help to my inspiration and posting! So as always, if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	8. Chapter 7

_“Have fun, boys-”_

“Cry? _Cry!_ ” A hand on Cry’s shoulder snapped him out of the vision, to which the masked man quickly whipped around to stare at Mark with wide eyes.

Mark blinked back at him, studying him with concern. “Hey. Are you okay?”

“I…” Cry looked around, trying desperately to reorient himself. “...What just happened?”

“I should be asking you the same thing. You suddenly spaced on us for a second,” Mark pointed out. “Right after the clock fell?”

“Uh…” Cry blinked, then shook his head, at a loss of words. “Did anybody else just...uh…” He looked from Mark to Felix, both eyeing him with curious concern. “I mean, did anybody else just see something? A...a vision or a hallucination or-”

Mark frowned. “I think you might need to sit down-”

“No, no! I _know_ I just saw something-” Cry countered, adamant. Slightly exasperated, he continued, “Don’t tell me you guys didn’t see anything!”

The other two exchanged looks before Felix finally spoke up. “I just...I remembered setting a few things up in the kitchen-lounge area with Tyler,” he replied, confused.

“Yeah, I just remembered running up the stairs after Tyler and Ethan with Jack,” Mark added. “While the monster was chasing us.”

Cry hesitated, processing all of this. It all sounded so innocuous but judging from what he’d been hearing so far, why did it just feel...off for some reason?

Suddenly it hit him.

“Wait.” Cry turned to Mark. “Jack said Ethan and Tyler went upstairs but you guys went on to the bathroom downstairs.”

Mark frowned, confused and thinking on it, but after a second, “O-oh. Oh yeah, of course-” He shook his head. “That’s weird-” Looking over at Felix, he added, “And you didn’t help Tyler set up downstairs; that monster drew you away before you could actually do anything else.”

Felix frowned. “Wait, what?”

“Remember? That’s how you got separated from the rest of us in the first place. That’s how you ended up getting hurt.”

Felix stopped and thought for a moment before it dawned on him. “Oh-yeah. Yeah, alright. I remember now.”

“That’s so weird. How could we have gotten confused like that?” Mark wondered.

“And at the same time, no less,” Cry pointed out.

Mark eyed Cry carefully. “And you? Surely you saw something too. You were too spaced out to have not’ve.”

Cry turned his gaze on Mark, expression startled beneath the mask, then looked to Felix who was eyeing him curiously. Should he...should he even say anything?

Everyone else seemed to be getting weird, distorted visions of the past, but they seemed to be generally harmless. What he got was...well, none of that. He’d never been to the room in the vision, hell, half the people in the group he was in wasn’t even _here_ yet. And then furthermore there was Jack just...being weird. He honestly didn’t really want to bring it up, not until he got the chance to ask Jack about it at least. Things were tense enough already; the last thing they needed was to start turning on each other because of some silly hallucinations.

So instead, for better or for worse, he lied.

“Ah-I don’t really think it was very important,” he replied. “To be honest, I’m kinda already starting to forget about it.” Unable to shake the sense of the others’ disbelief, he went back to busying himself with the task at hand. He set the clock down on the shelf and replaced the book before moving on to the desk a bit quicker than he would’ve really prefered. Just a bit of rummaging through a couple desk drawers and-

“Ah. Here we are. Bingo,” he noted, holding up a brass key to show to the others. And not a moment too soon, actually. Any longer without a decent distraction and he felt he would’ve been questioned further about his freakish...whatever it was.

Although Mark didn’t miss the sudden evasion, he was at least on board, it seemed...for now. “Thank god,” he sighed, walking over to get a closer look. “So there _is_ one.”

“Yeah. You might’ve been on to somethin’ here,” Cry agreed, handing the key over to Mark. Remembering something else, he pulled a couple other keys from his pocket and handed it over as well. Mark looked questioningly down at the keys.

“What’s this?”

“When you turn right outta this room and keep going until you’re at that room in the other corridor on this end,” Cry explained. “I hid in there when the monster took off after us; Jack passed it to me right before he disappeared. The other key goes to the library.”

“So both of them are already unlocked?” Mark asked although pocketing the key as well. Cry shrugged.

“Well yeah, I mean-I didn’t lock them back or anything. But you strike me as the kinda guy who’s gonna keep on volunteering to scour this entire place for the others if it’s necessary, and somebody’s gotta be our keeper of the keys, so to speak. In which case, can’t think of anyone more qualified for the job.”

“Oh. Uh, okay. Thanks…I think.”

Cry cast a glance around the room. “Alright, so I imagine we don’t have a whole lot of time. We should probably figure out a place for Felix to hide in the meantime.”

Mark frowned. “The bathrooms might be the safest place down there, but they don’t exactly have anywhere inside to hide in. Cabinets under the sink, but _I_ could barely fit in one, much less Felix.” He shook his head. “Besides, two long corridors makes that further from the door than it’s worth. We may as well just continue using this room.”

“The armoire would be bigger than a cabinet. And I imagine a little bit more cozy, at least. Less pipes,” Cry agreed. He looked over at Felix. “Well? Thoughts?”

“Last time I managed to hide safely without anyone else, this was the room and that was the place,” Felix agreed. “I guess if we’re really doing this…” He sighed and scratched his head, looking down for a moment a reluctant frown on his face. “Yeah, let’s get me inside the damn furniture.”

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Felix,” Mark reminded.

“Yeah, we do,” Felix replied, trying to keep some of the irritation and nerves out of his voice. “Now c’mon, help me up.”

Both Mark and Cry moved to either side to help him up and ease him to the armoire in the back corner of the room. “C’mon...easy does it,” Mark instructed, eventually making it to the armoire and reaching forward to pull the doors open. The pair helped him up inside and Felix squirmed a bit in an attempt to find a position that would be a bit more comfortable. Mark pursed his lips in a concerned frown. “You gonna be alright in there?”

“Maybe. Probably not. But hey-at least it’s kinda fitting right? The Swedish guy gets killed hiding inside furniture?” Felix shifted a bit with a wince. “It’d be even more fitting if this were Ikea. More comfortable, too.”

Mark didn’t even crack a smile. “Don’t even joke about that,” he scolded quietly. “We’re going to survive this. Somehow.”

“Just don’t forget about me,” Felix requested, his nerves rising a bit above his own bravado. “When you guys get that door open, promise you won’t leave me in here.”

“Believe me, Felix: I promise. _We_ promise.” Mark glanced over at Cry, who nodded in agreement.

“We’ll be thinking about you the whole time, buddy,” Cry seconded. “And if anyone does forget, I’ll make sure to remind them. Trust me, we’ll be coming back for you.” Remembering something, he reached into the pocket of his hoodie, pulling out the lighter and hairspray. “In the meantime, I want you to have this.”

“Aw, you shouldn’t have,” Felix replied, taking the items and actually cracking the tiniest of grins. “But you totally should have. Who can say no to a flamethrower?”

“I...I’m gonna make a quick update on the camcorder,” Mark informed them, heading back over to the bed. He was looking extremely uneasy at this point and his need for a distraction was clear. “We can stick it back on the chair on our way out. If Tyler and Ethan find it, at least they can be reassured that I’m still alive. Felix, too.” He glanced over at Cry. “And that you’re here.”

Cry nodded. “Yeah. Fair enough,” he agreed. “Let’s hurry that up and then get this show on the road.”

 

* * *

 

“Well, here we are,” Matthias announced from the passenger’s seat, twisting around a bit to look at the two in the back with a grin. “ _Nuestra Casa de Halloween_.”

“Damn,” Bryan said, angling a bit to get a better look with a wide grin. “How did Felix even manage to afford this place?”

“Well, we’ve only got it for a few nights. I think he said something about this place being a foreclosure?” Ken spoke up as he pulled the car into park next to Felix’s. Hm, seemed there were two cars there already. Maybe the crew came back? “Either way, it’s just a very short rental.”

“Guess we can’t go putting any holes in the wall like back at the office,” J-Fred noted with a smirk, stepping out of the car with the others.

“So long as we don’t let Mark get another kart, I think we’ll be fine,” Bryan noted with a grin, looking around. “Liking the space we have out here though. We might actually have the space for some of those outdoor challenges on the list.”

“Yeah, well, provided it don’t rain,” J-Fred noted, glancing up at the sky. Although it’d gotten dark a while ago, the impending storm was still imminent. Distant thunder aside, the wind was starting to pick up and a thick blanket of clouds prevented any view of the moon or stars.

“We’re in England, man. It always rains. Supposedly,” Ken chuckled, locking the car on his way over to the gate.

“Yeah, it always rains,” Matthias seconded with a chuckle, grinning over at J-Fred. “What’s wrong, baby bro? Can’t handle a little rain?”

Bryan grinned as he watched J-Fred run over to Matthias to tussle, although the grin was broken by a yawn. The group had just come directly from the airport, and although they’d tried getting some sleep on the plane, it predictably wasn’t very restful. The most well-rested out of the four of them was Ken thanks to the shorter flight. That combined with his experience in Australia made him the prime candidate for driving.

All the same, the lack of sleep gave them all an increased mix of loopy and cranky.

Thankfully, at the moment, mostly loopy.

“Either way, Felix is gonna have a better idea at how things are looking as far as the weather goes,” Ken explained as they reached the front door. He reached out and tried it, glancing back at the others as it opened easily. “Huh. Looks like they left it unlocked. Convenient for us, am I right?” Stepping inside, he looked around, taking in the size of the place. “Now all we got to do is find them.”

“Yeah, well considering that it’s most of the Revelmode crew,” Matthias pointed out with a grin. “I don’t think that’s gonna be very hard. We just follow the source of all the noise.”

But his confident remark was met by the smothering silence of the house, which caused his grin to falter. “...Or not.”

“Probably hard at work,” Bryan pointed out.

“Felix _did_ say the rest of the crew jumped ship at the very last second,” Ken reminded. “And I think we were planning for a...ghost hunt or something like that? They’ll have to set up throughout the house.”

“Huh, so they could be spread out all over the place,” J-Fred noted, glancing toward the stairs.

“But I’m sure they still have a base somewhere,” Matthias pointed out. “A main room to do most of the livestream and all. Right? So if we find that, at least it’s a start.”

“So maybe we should split up?” Bryan suggested. “Two of us take the upstairs, two of us down here?”

“This place looked like it had more than two floors,” Matthias muttered as he shook his head slightly. But then he looked back at the others. “Uh, yeah, I’m good with that. You and Ken take the upstairs, Joey and I will take down here?”

“Yeah, sounds good to me,” Ken agreed as he glanced over at Bryan, who seconded the plan with a nod. “I guess we meet back in this spot in about fifteen, maybe? I imagine we’ve got a bunch of rooms to go through on all of the floors, so.”

“I think fifteen’s more than enough,” J-Fred agreed, exchanging a confident smirk with Matthias. “And I guess if we haven’t found anyone yet, we’ll do the same thing with any higher floors.”

“Works for me,” Ken agreed, heading for the stairs, followed by Bryan. Glancing over his shoulder, he called over, “Hey, just don’t go crashing on us before we find them.”

J-Fred laughed and Matthias cracked a sleepy grin. “Sure, make it even more of a challenge,” the former called back as the other two disappeared up the stairs. Looking left, then right, then ahead, he finally glanced over at Matthias. “Door number one? Door number two? Or door number three?”

“Door number one, of course,” Matthias replied, turning left. “That is what we’re-” His words were cut short with a yawn of his own. “What we’re shooting for, isn’t it?”

“Sounds more like like what you’re shooting for is sleep,” J-Fred pointed out with a chuckle. “I told you you should’ve gotten more on the plane.”

“Yeah but they had that movie and-and-” Matthias’s defense was broken by another yawn. “Honestly I figured I could run on a bit less sleep anyway, considering I’m used to it. Getting up in the middle of the night and all...”

J-Fred laughed, but his own laughter was cut short by a yawn of his own. Matthias grinned triumphantly. “Ha. Ha! I’m starting to think I’m not the only one.”

“That proves nothing!” J-Fred countered. “Your yawns are just contagious, okay? Scientific fact!” He paused by a door and reached out to try it. Nothing. A small frown crossing his face, he glanced over at his brother in confusion. “Are the doors supposed to be locked?” he wondered.

“I dunno. I mean, maybe. If this was a foreclosure and the bank wanted to keep out unwanted guests…” Matthias shrugged, eyeing the door before moving to continue the rest of the way down the hall and turn right. “It might also be a thing that the Revelmode crew just hasn’t gotten around to unlocking it yet.”

“Wouldn’t it suck if we actually had the wrong house?” J-Fred suggested, mostly joking. “The GPS started wigging out a little bit when we started getting close, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, but not that bad,” Matthias replied, shaking his head. “I _hope_ we didn’t. Amanda said to bring back some stories but I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean for one of them to be getting arrested by the British police.” They reached the end of the hall, finding the two doors unlocked. Matthias checking one door and J-Fred checking the other, the two met back out in the hall only a few seconds later. “Nothing?”

“Nothing,” J-Fred replied, shaking his head. “Just a bathroom.”

“Yeah, same here…” Matthias seconded, glancing back at the door he’d just checked.  He sighed. “Maybe we should go check door number two, in that case.”

J-Fred nodded in agreement and the two were soon heading back from whence they came. When they rounded the corner, they could see down the corridor, straight on to the entrance hall and beyond. What caught them off guard was a lone unfamiliar figure standing by the front door. They couldn’t quite catch sight of the figure’s face yet due to the angle, and the fact that the figure had the hood to his hoodie pulled up wasn’t doing them any favors. The younger brother frowned, reaching out a hand to slow Matthias for a second and point the figure out.

“Who is that?”

Taking notice of the figure and slowing, now Matthias was frowning as well. “Felix, maybe?” he suggested, although his own tone betrayed his uncertainty.

As they neared, he rose his voice a bit to call over. “Felix? Is that you?”

The figure turned toward them and both brothers stopped abruptly upon seeing that the figure was wearing a mask.

“Matt?”

“Yeah?”

“We might’ve just wandered in on a horror movie, right?”

“...I’d say that it’s possible, yeah,” Matthias agreed, staring with wide eyes. “Maybe we should-”

“ _Shit,_ ” the masked man suddenly said, and although the word itself was aggressive, the voice was really...not so much. Actually, kinda weird, the voice was fairly familiar somehow. It was reminiscent of _someone_ from Youtube, he just couldn’t put his finger on whom.

But it definitely wasn’t Felix.

“ _Shit!_ ”

“Uh-” Matthias hesitated, staring at the figure and ready to bolt. J-Fred was tense, ready to do the same. “You’re not-uh-” He swallowed, attempting to steel his nerve. “You’re not Felix, are you?”

“ _No_ , I’m _Cry_ -” the figure corrected. He shook his head, walking over to the front door. “Please tell me it’s just you two. Please tell me the others are still outside.”

“Uh… No?” Matthias replied, exchanging a look with J-Fred, watching the man as if he’d grown a second head. Cry jiggled the handle but in vain-

The masked man turned back to them, and yeah, now they had a clear view of it. It was definitely a Cry mask. What the-

Nevermind, they’d ask about that later. The guy’s bizarre behavior should probably be their first concern.

“What are you doing?” Matthias asked, voice laden with confusion.

“Oh, _fuck-_ ” Seeming to remember their presence, he turned to them. “Well _now_ we’re in trouble.”

J-Fred blinked, frowning. “...What?” he asked.

“Cry, you’re not making any sense-” Matthias started.

“Oh man, and that was our _one_ chance-” Hearing heavy footsteps upstairs, Cry froze, glancing upward. His voice dropped down to a much more natural quiet tone. “...Um…” He turned his attention back to the brothers. “...C’mon. We need to find some place to take cover.”

“ _What?_ ” Matthias demanded.

“Okay-if this is some kind of prank-” J-Fred started.

“Believe me, it is _not_ a prank. Really wish it was, but it’s not.” Cry shook his head, moving past them and back down the left corridor.

“The only thing that way are bathrooms-”

“I know, follow me. I wanna try giving something a second look,” Cry began. He paused, looking back at the two before waving them forward. “Well _c’mon_. This is kind of a matter of life and death.”

Matthias glanced over at J-Fred, finally giving a shrug as they both hurried to follow.

“You mind telling us what the heck is going on around here?” J-Fred demanded as they walked.

“I-” Cry sounded ready to launch into explanation, but then hesitated. “To be honest, I really don’t think you’ll believe me until you guys see it for yourselves. All I can really tell you is that there’s something in this house that’s trying to kill everybody and now we’re all locked in.”

Matthias stared at the masked man, eyes wide. “ _What?_ ”

“See! What’d I tell ya. Disbelief,” Cry affirmed. They finally reached the bathroom and turned into the one on the right. “Make sure to lock the door behind us and try not to make too much noise. We’re gonna have to experiment. And maybe search around a little bit more too. I know Mark said he checked this place already, but personally I’d feel a bit more comfortable if we had a second makeshift weapon to pass around between all of us.”

“We-” Matthias glanced back at the door, hesitant to lock it. “Bryan and Ken are upstairs-”

“Then Mark’s gonna have to find them. Trust me, you do _not_ want to get caught out in the open when that thing is out roaming around,” Cry said, going into the next room where the toilet was and fishing around in his pockets. A second look definitely proved the device to be a bizarre one: was that a _vending machine_ on top?

“What... _thing?_ You said that Mark was upstairs? Where is everybody else?”

“We’re not sure what the thing is, some kind of monster or something-” Cry shook his head. “Either way! It wants to kill us. And that’s kind of a bad thing.” He pulled out a few coins from his pocket, glancing up at the machine, then looking back down at the coins in his hand. “Huh, okay…” he muttered to himself.

Seeming to remember that there were others in the room with him, he raised his voice somewhat again to address them, continuing his explanation. “Felix is upstairs hiding. Dude fell through the floor and now he can’t run very well. Ethan, Tyler and Jack are MIA. Mark’s out trying to find everyone, and that being said, it’s better if we stick together if we can. It’s gonna make life just a little bit easier-”

Seeming to find what he was looking for, he took a couple steps closer to the toilet, sticking a coin into the slot of the vending machine and examining the buttons. “Hm…” he murmured.

J-Fred frowned, taking a step forward to peer at the machine. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Well. Like I said, we’re kinda having some trouble finding weapons,” Cry explained. “We also need to find the key to the front door. Now, this is just a hunch, but I’m willing to bet that maybe, just _maybe_ one of these buttons will give us at least _one_ of those items. It’d be a lot more helpful if it’d actually give us some amounts, but I guess that’s kind of a puzzle in and of itself, huh?” He shook his head.

Matthias’s glance lingered to the door, already wanting to head upstairs and find Bryan and Ken. But their newfound companion probably did have a point: sticking together in a place this big probably _was_ pretty important. And all things considered, he and J-Fred didn’t have any idea what kind of monster he was actually talking about. Cry did seem to have a whole lot more experience with whatever was going on than he did though, so at least until they had some sort of encounter of their own…

“Alright. Ten minutes,” he decided. “I’m willing to hide out for about ten minutes if that’s what we’re doing.”

Cry glanced back at them, giving a questioning sideways look. Or they figured it was questioning, anyway. It actually _was_ more than a little unnerving when they couldn’t even see the guy’s face. Matthias decided to answer the unspoken question.

“That’s when we’re supposed to meet back up with the others down here. About at the spot where you were.”

“Ohhh… I gotcha. Sure. I guess.” Cry shrugged, turning his attention back to the vending machine. “We’ll see. It really kinda just depends on how safe it is to go outside. Either way though, I’m sure Mark’s gonna find them.”

“What do you want us to do in the meantime?” J-Fred asked, glancing back at Matthias with a frown, who gave him a shrug in return.

“Uh-well if you could check those cubbyholes,” Cry suggested. “Mark said he checked them earlier, but maybe there’s something he missed. Or something we could kinda throw together ourselves.” He shook his head. “I mean, we’ll see.”

“I guess…” Matthias agreed with a soft sigh and a frown. It was clear he was worried, he definitely wanted to head back out and regroup. But they’d do things this way-for now. At least they had some sort of task to keep themselves busy with.

In the meantime, he’d just have to trust everyone else and hope for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry if the chapter was a bit slow but _new people!_ But yeah, things will start picking back up shortly. And as we're beginning to find out, things definitely aren't all they appear in this crazy house. What that means exactly? You'll just have to wait and see. Or theorize on! Theory-crafting is the best. But yeah. As always, definitely appreciate the support and it really helps with my writing. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	9. Chapter 8

“Hello~?” Bryan called out as he and Ken entered the room. They’d made it to the second story, taking a left into a corridor in the back of the house. There was only one room on this particular corridor (not a ton of rooms to the floor, it seemed, in spite of the overall expanse of the place-which they figured was something of a relief) but a look inside proved fruitless. The room itself didn’t look so bad-a bed in the corner, a TV with a sofa in another, some chest of drawers and some bookcases. But no Youtubers, nothing at all that they were looking for.

“Man,” Ken noted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess it really was too quiet for them to be in here.”

“Yeah, unless they heard us while we were downstairs and they’re looking to prank us,” Bryan agreed. He shrugged. “I mean, we do only have fifteen minutes. We could split up, maybe? Get this floor done in about half the time.”

“Maybe,” Ken agreed. He shook his head. “But considering how big this goddang house is overall-”

“I’m pretty sure it’d be fine. I mean, we’d just be looking around on this floor and this one only, right?” Bryan shrugged. “Honestly, I dunno about you, but I’d like to find them as soon as possible. The sooner we find them and set everything up, the sooner we’ll be able to crash.”

Ken shook his head. “Should’ve slept more on the plane, man,” he noted.

Bryan winced. “Not for lack of trying, believe me. Not really digging the transatlantic flights though.”

“Bad spot in coach?”

“Right in the middle of a couple people that stole the armrests.”

“Geez. I sympathize,” Ken replied apologetically, shaking his head as they headed back out of the room. “Well I mean, I guess your logic is pretty sound. Although our wrapping things up sooner up here ain’t gonna make them go any faster down there. Probably, anyway.”

“Probably,” Bryan agreed, checking his phone. His brows furrowed in a slight frown. “Hey-did you notice that we don’t seem to have any wifi out here?”

Ken frowned slightly, glancing over at him. “As in we don’t have a password to it yet?”

“No, as in ‘we don’t have it at all’. How are we supposed to livestream without it?”

Ken shook his head. “Maybe it’s something they’re still working on getting set up?” he suggested. “Or-you know, probably more likely, that storm rolling it might’ve done something to the wifi connection somehow.”

“You think that’s what it is?” Bryan shrugged, pocketing his phone. “I mean, I guess it could be. So long as it’s back up in time for the livestream.”

“What all _do_ you guys have planned?” Ken questioned, heading down the corridor and turning into the main hall.

“Oh, you know: apple bobbing, quidditch if the weather allows-” Bryan suddenly paused, staring at a chair sitting against the wall with a camera on it. “...Was that there before?”

Ken frowned, walking over and picking it up. “Was it?” he wondered, looking it over. “I mean, I know we didn’t really go through this hallway, but I feel like we would’ve seen this when we turned left.” He shook his head. “What is this, _Hello Neighbor_?”

“Is it on?”

Turning it around, Ken shook his head. “Nah. And I’m not quite sure who’s it is. Kinda weird that it would just get left up here though.”

“I think we were supposed to have some kind of mock ghost hunt,” Bryan noted. “Could be for that, maybe?”

“Maybe-” Ken suddenly fell silent when he heard some sort of creaking upstairs, drawing the attention of both men. Raising his eyebrows, he finally glanced over at Ken. “Sooo...they’re upstairs then?”

But then the much softer creak of a floorboard behind them caused them to turn, coming face-to-face with an _extremely_ alarmed Mark, who stared at them with wide eyes.

“Mark?” Bryan greeted, although something about the gamer’s expression threw his cheer and relief. He blinked, confused. “...What? What’s wrong?”

Mark opened his mouth but heard another floorboard creak upstairs and quickly closed it again. So instead he silently put his finger to his lips and waved for them to follow, quickly heading back for the room they’d just left. Confused, the other two followed, nobody saying a word until they’d reached the room and shut the door. Mark locked it behind them, casting a look around the room, then settling his gaze on the newcomers.

“Oh man,” he muttered, pacing a little. “What are you guys doing here already? I was kinda worried this was gonna happen; it’s too soon.”

“What’s going on?” Ken asked, watching.

“There’s-” Mark glanced over at the door, then back at the other two. “There’s something in the house. We’re not completely sure _what_ it is, just that it is absolutely a hundred percent bad. And that it’s _probably_ trying to kill us.”

Bryan’s eyes widened a bit. Part of him wanted to guess it a prank. After all-something in the house? Something that was trying to _kill_ them? And of course, it would be the King of FNAF and the player of a bunch of horror games that would drop this on them. But he’d seen Mark joke before. This was not joking, and while the guy was a pretty decent actor, he looked genuinely scared, concerned and maybe even mildly panicked. He also gave off the definite vibe of it, which was really enough to give Bryan pause.

Something about all of this didn’t really seem to sit right, either. How quiet the house was, where everyone else was, how strangely Mark seemed to be acting…

“Mark, you-” Ken shook his head, just as confused as Bryan was, although not quite as unnerved. Yet. “What are you talking about, buddy? Where’s everyone else?”

“I’m working on the answer to that now,” Mark began, but then paused, stopping to turn to the two. “Where’s Joey and Matthias?”

“Downstairs,” Bryan replied, starting to get a bad feeling.

Mark nodded, sucking in a deep breath as he processed this information. “And when you guys came on inside, did you see Cry?” He suddenly made a face. “Actually no. I’m guessing no, Cry wouldn’t have let you guys split up-”

“Wait, Cry’s here?” Ken asked, confused.

“Yeah, he-” Mark shook his head and picked up the pacing again, rubbing his temples. “Oh _goddammit_ . That was our _one_ shot!” Noticing that the others were staring, Mark sighed. The hint of frustration and impatience was difficult to miss. “Like I said: There’s a thing in this house that’s trying to kill is and on top of that, the front door locks automatically. Unless we have a key now, or we can somehow figure out a way to bust down that door or get out through a window maybe, we can’t get out of here. This whole damn building is a death trap-”

“Woah, woah, okay. Hold up, so where are the others?” Ken interrupted, definitely looking worried now. “You said Cry’s downstairs, right?”

“Last time I checked-” Mark looked over at the door, seeming torn. “Ethan and Tyler went missing, I don’t even know where. Same with Jack. Felix is in hiding right now-he’s not in any good shape at all-”

“ _Woah_ , what happened to Felix?” Ken questioned, alarmed.

“He-” Mark sighed. “He fell through a hole in the floor upstairs. Ended up hurting his back, now he’s having problems _standing_ , nevermind _running_.”

“Oh god,” Ken muttered, frowning. “Is anyone even with him right now?”

“Not at the moment, no,” Mark replied. “But we have kinda designated the room he’s in as our new safe room.” Seeming to think things over for a moment, he continued, “I’m gonna get you guys over there and then I’m going to go get Cry, Joey and Matthias. We _need_ to regroup, stick to one place and come up with a plan. I don’t think we’re going to make much progress escaping this place until we can actually do that.”

“Yeah, I guess we can do that,” Bryan agreed, although he looked a bit anxious at the idea of any kind of wait. “Felix...is he close?”

Mark nodded. “Right side of the house,” he replied. “So just down the corridor across from this one.”

“Good. We should probably get going the-” Ken suddenly fell silent, looking over at the doorknob as it twisted, stopped, then jiggled a couple times in seeming frustration. The trio stood frozen, watching and listening for a span that seemed to stretch on into eternity until finally heavy footsteps headed off from the door.

Mark let out an exhale as he shook his head. It was a probably no less than the span of a minute before he finally broke the silence. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that,” he remarked.

Bryan frowned. “ _How long_ has this been going on for?”

“An hour minimum. Longer, I think,” Mark replied. He shook his head with a light growl of frustration. “Time seems to be kinda wonky in this place. On our phones or-” He shook his head again, unsure where he was going with this. “Well. On our phones.” Hesitantly unlocking the door and peeking out, he then glanced back at the others, giving them the ‘all clear, follow’ gesture and slipping out. The others quietly followed, heading down the hall and sticking close. Mark paused at the end of the corridor, checking the main hallway, then waved them on ahead again. Like a swat team, quick and methodical but silent, they soon made it to the door in the other corridor.

Mark gave it a couple quick, light knocks before opening the door entirely and heading inside with the others, closing it behind them and locking it. “Felix?” he called out softly, heading over to the armoire and giving it a knock as well. “It’s Mark.” He slowly opened the door, peeking inside before opening it the rest of the way.

Felix blinked up at him, hairspray and lighter in hand, and lowered them the slight bit they’d been lifted. He breathed out a breath he’d probably been holding, body relaxing just a little bit (as much as it allowed, anyway) in relief. “Mark, what are you-” Tilting his head just slightly to see past him, his expression fell. “Oh fuck.”

“Nice to see you too, senpai,” Ken replied, although his tone held no offense.

“And lemme guess-the door’s not open anymore.”

“You guessed right,” Mark replied softly.

Felix’s gaze swiveled back to Mark. “Do they know?” he asked.

“Yeah, they know. _Now_ ,” Mark replied, glancing back at the others with a frown. “Actually, we almost had an encounter with that thing. Thankfully we made sure the door was locked, but…”

Felix frowned as he took a quick headcount. “And you haven’t found anyone yet? Where’s Cry? And-the others, I’m assuming? Matthias and Joey?”

“We’re guessing still downstairs,” Mark replied. “But I wanted to round up everyone in this room. If I can get someone to stick around with you, I figure it would help. Even better if it’s two-”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Bryan cut in. “If you’re going downstairs to round up the others, then I’m going with you.”

Mark hesitated. “Bryan-”

Bryan shook his head, holding up a hand to cut the gamer off. “Joey and Matthias are family. I’m coming with, end of discussion.”

Ken looked from one to the other before finally shrugging. “I’ll stick around with Felix,” he volunteered. “Just get everyone back up here safely.”

Mark looked reluctant but finally relented. “Alright, alright. Fine,” he replied. “Uh-” Considering for a moment, he handed the camera over to Felix. “We should probably get this done quick, while we still have some idea where they are. So Felix, if you could do the next update video-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Felix replied, taking the camera. He glanced over at Ken. “I’ll explain it to Ken, too. I’m guessing he’ll be the one setting it back out there if you guys don’t get back fast enough.”

“If he _can_ . If it’s _safe_ ,” Mark replied, his tone laden with nerves. Turning to Ken, he added, “Make sure to lock the door whenever you’re inside. If the monster _still_ manages to get in somehow, try and find a place to hide since it doesn’t seem to check the hiding spots-”

“Uh-” Felix raised a hand. “So long as the monster’s owner isn’t joining him. Otherwise we’re probably pretty fucked.”

Mark paused, then sighed. “...The sentiment is still there,” he offered in an attempt to be reassuring.

“I guess-” Felix shook his head and waved the two off. “Anyway. Get going. Before we lose any more people.”

Mark bit his lip and nodded, turning back to Ken. “You’ll know it’s me for sure from a couple quick knocks on the door.”

“Couple quick knocks, got it,” Ken repeated, heading over to grab a chair and carry it over. “We’ll be waiting. Don’t get yourselves killed.”

“Believe me,” Mark replied. “Not gonna try to.” As they headed out the door, he paused to look back at the two. “Hang tight. We’ll be back soon.”

And with that reassurance, the two were soon out the door and heading downstairs.

 

* * *

 

“I still don’t think this is the most likely place to look for Mark and the others,” Ethan spoke up as the two searched the room, knowing that his doubts would fall upon ears deaf with determination. After time ran out in waiting for Mark and the others, Tyler found the key to the door in the back of the entrance hall on the first floor, tucked away on a bookshelf in the safe room. At that point, there was no talking him out of it-big surprise there-but the predictability of his friend’s stubborn behavior served as no real comfort. “I mean, c’mon, the door was _locked_. We’ve been searching this room-nobody’s turned up so far.”

“Maybe, but even if there isn’t anyone else in there, there could be still be something that could help us in the long run,” Tyler pointed out as they walked down the newly-opened hallway. “Like a key or a backdoor-even a secret passageway or a weapon, maybe?”

And really, Ethan couldn’t quite argue with that logic, just-

Leaving the safe room to wander around in unfamiliar areas in groups no larger than two struck him as a _really_ bad idea.

And unfamiliar this area certainly was. Although maintaining its own beauty and uniqueness with a more Asian flair-an entire wall separating off a room or two with painted shoji walls and tatami mats on the floors like some sort of dojo-it didn’t exactly do much to ease the eerieness of the place. On the contrary, that just threw an additional vibe of ‘Japanese horror movie’ into the equation.

Well. Ethan could actually counter Tyler’s logic with a bit of his own.

“If that _thing_ locked the front door, what are the odds that it forgot to lock the backdoor?” he pointed out. “Assuming there even _is_ one.”

Tyler didn’t respond. Ugh, dealing with this guy was like dealing with a stubborn mule.

Ethan decided to continue. “I still think the safer thing would be to go back and wait for the others,” he pressed. “We shouldn’t be wandering this place when it’s just the two of us.”

“If you wanna go back to the safe room,” Tyler finally said. “Then go on ahead. I’m not stopping you; we probably should’ve had someone stay in there anyway.”

Ethan winced slightly at his own failure of breaking through to his friend. “Well I’m not letting you go wandering this place alone, either,” he countered, his voice quiet. “It’s bad enough Mark’s been doing it. I’m not about to let you go off and do it too.”

Tyler glanced back at him before letting out a small sigh. “It just feels wrong,” he finally explained. “Sitting around and doing _nothing_ . Especially when our friends might be out there risking their lives. Besides, the time we agreed upon with Mark _did_ run out. Realistically speaking, just how long could we have sat there before the monster got to us anyway?” He shook his head. “We’d be sitting ducks. At least if we’re in a position where we’re moving and can get away in a hurry…”

Ethan sighed, a frown still settled on his face. Decent points, he supposed, but...he still wasn’t sure how much he agreed with them. This _still_ seemed like a bad idea.

“...Anyway,” Tyler said, pushing one of the sliding doors open all the way and stepping inside. Yeah, the large room definitely gave off a sort of ‘dojo’ vibe. His eyes swept the room as Ethan glanced around nervously.

“I’m not seeing anyone,” the blunette pointed out, his voice just above a whisper. “I think this room is a bust.”

“Not yet,” Tyler countered, beginning to walk around the room, shifting and moving things here and there. “Again, there might be a key hidden away in here, just like there was in the safe room.” As he reached the back wall, he paused, eyeing the old katana on the wall. It looked old and used, but still well-maintained. A few spatters of blood stained the white fabric tied around the opening of the sheath and the grip on the hilt-he tried not to think about that. Pulling it down and removing it partway from the sheath, it still looked to be rather sharp, too. Tyler closed it again and tucked it underneath his belt. Not that he had professional skills or anything, but any weapon at the moment was better than nothing. For the purposes of reassurance if nothing else.

Ethan let out a sigh, wandering over to the closets on the right-hand side of the room and sliding them open one by one. Each movement held apprehension, but the logical part of his mind was trying to reason it out. What were the odds that a monster that big would be hiding in the _closet?_ C’mon, what was he, five? Checking closets was infinitely better than checking hallways and new rooms, he was sure of it.

Sliding another door open, his eyebrows raised when he caught sight of the key on the floor. “Oh-” he began.

And that’s when his eyes caught sight of what was behind the key. A gray pair of long, slender but bowed legs, and as his eyes slowly lifted to take in the monster they went to, his eyes bulged. The monster was tall and slender with long, lithe limbs and curved sharp fingers. Eyes were the same soulless black as the other monster. He opened his mouth, closed it, repeated the process a couple of times as his voice and body seemed otherwise paralyzed with fear.

The monster was the one that made the first move.

As he saw clawed hands swiftly rise, his voice finally came out in a cross between a yelp and a squeak. “Oh-OH-! TYLER!”

Tyler whipped around just in time to see Ethan stagger back, blood flying from a deep gouge down his right shoulder. “ETHAN!” he exclaimed, bolting for the two as his hand went to the hilt of the sword. He had _no_ idea if the weapon was gonna be legit and hold up, but it looked sturdy enough and without any other options-

Well. It was better than nothing, at any rate.

Yanking the sword from its sheath (albeit somewhat clumsily, he had no real practice), he swiftly moved to skid between his friend and the monster. Nearly slipped but just barely managed to balance, the blood already on the floor made it slick. Eyes wide, adrenaline pumping, he grasped the hilt of the katana with both hands, holding it before him.

“Tyler-!” Ethan began, staggering back a few steps while clutching his wound, blood already beginning to seep from between his fingertips.

“Get out of here! Go!” Tyler commanded, not taking his eyes off the creature. It looked like it was about to move in for another attack. “I’ll slow it down!”

“What are you, _nuts?!_ ” Ethan countered. “That thing is gonna kill you-!”

“ **_GO!_ ** ”

Ethan stood frozen, watching as Tyler suddenly lunged forward to plunge the katana into the creature’s middle. It only got partway in when the creature suddenly reached down and grabbed Tyler’s face, tossing him into the wall nearby. For something as thin and wiry as it was, it was certainly stronger than it looked. Tyler went flying, the katana yanked out with his momentum but still grasped lightly in his hand as he hit the wall hard and slid down limply.

“TYLER!” Ethan exclaimed, instinctively making a run to his fallen friend. But it was at the point where the creature was between him and the door that he realized his mistake, stopping just short and beginning to back away, back towards Tyler. He should’ve bolted. He should’ve run out of there to draw the creature away, but now any escape route was blocked and they were both absolutely _screwed-_

“HEY, FUCKER!”

All eyes turned to the doorway, staring at the green-haired Irishman who stood panting and tense, but eyes narrowed in-well, he certainly didn’t seem to be showing that much fear. On the contrary, more like...annoyance? Anger?

And then the look that _really_ tripped Ethan up.

He must’ve been seeing things, what-

_Why?_

Jack suddenly sneered tempestuously, tilting his head slightly as fists clenched.

“ _Miss me?_ ” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! So yeah. We found Tyler. We found Ethan. We found, uh, a new monster. And we found Jack! Good thing, bad thing, who can tell at this point? Next chapter! But yeah, thanks so much for the support so far, really goes a long way in helping me write and post this. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	10. Chapter 9

“Jack-!” Ethan called over, but the Irishman was suddenly gone in a flash. The monster took the bait, following him out of the room and off down the hall. Ethan stared for a second, eyes still wide and body still stiff as his mind attempted to process what the _hell_ just happened, but finally he shook his head and took a few unsteady steps back over to Tyler, kneeling heavily down next to him. The spot where his friend had made contact with the wall was bright red and would probably bruise given a day or two...if they even managed to make it that long.

But for the time being, Tyler was definitely unconscious-or at least, he _hoped_ that was all it was. He wasn’t completely sure how exactly to handle an issue like that either way except to...monitor it and hope he woke up sometime soon? Maybe? Either way, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to move the taller man, certainly not all on his own, and certainly not-

Thinking of his own personal issue drew his immediate attention back to the throbbing, sharp pain tearing through his shoulder. Nevermind his hand and arm, those were...christ, those were completely useless. He was trying not to think about how the monster probably tore right through the muscle on his shoulder and left it in shreds.

Was the damage really that bad?

It seemed to be bleeding a lot the last he really looked, but-

One glance down at his shoulder showed his hand was already covered in blood and his shirt absolutely soaked through on the right side. He quickly looked away and squeezed his eyes shut, feeling his stomach lurch. Oh...oh god. Oh god, this was serious. That _thing_ must have gotten an artery or something; why was there so much blood?

His eyes flickered around the room to put together a plan, borderline frantic as his brain struggled to overcome instinctive rising panic. There had to be something, something that could _help_.

Something to stop the bleeding.

Bandages. He needed bandages.

“O-okay,” he whispered, drawing in a deep breath (which only earned him more pain-any movement seemed to be earning him more pain at this point) and letting it out in a shaky exhale. “One step at a time.” His eyes swept across the room again, although this time with purpose, hoping to find something before getting up. If he could just cut out the job of rummaging, it would help conserve a bit of energy and just...not hurt as much-

“Need to find bandages.”

He grit his teeth as he used the wall to help rise to his feet again, seeing nothing within immediate view. Great. That meant he was gonna _have_ to rummage.

He took a tentative step away from the wall, feeling himself sway just slightly and pausing to ensure steadiness, then several more steps past the closets and across the room. With each step he tried his best to ignore the sounds of his own blood dripping lightly onto the tatami mats and after making it about halfway to his goal, he had to stop for just a few seconds. Stop, close his eyes briefly, resteady himself as he felt himself waver again. “I really...am in...bad shape…” he whispered as he picked up his trek again. Finally making it to the wall, he stared up at the scroll hanging before him. The writing was on parchment, but the layer underneath looked like it was made of some sort of starched-stiff, heavy brown fabric-wool or something, maybe. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it was better than nothing.

He hesitated, glancing over at the hand gripping his wound, then back up at the scroll. Well-seeing as how he could really only use one hand at the moment, he was gonna have to-

The moment he removed his hand from the injury was a moment he instantly regretted. Without the pressure or any blockage whatsoever on the wound, the blood began flowing out freely in a greater amount and at a greater speed than he originally thought it would. Immediately another wave of dizziness overtook him, and though he managed to wrap his fingers around the fabric portion of the scroll, the earth suddenly seemed to tilt and toss him over onto his side as one of his knees buckled. He lay there for a few long seconds, stunned and blinking sluggishly a few times until focus finally pushed itself back up to the forefront of his mind.

Well. At least he still had the scroll in one hand. After ripping it down off the wall, of course.

“Gotta...gotta make this into bandages…” he whispered again. The low volume of his voice wasn’t just from the concern of reminding the monster that they were still in here (if the monster was even within earshot at this point), although it would’ve been well-justified. No, it was because it was the best he could really manage. His breaths were becoming quick, shallow and choppy-and honestly, he couldn’t figure out if it was because of the pain or blood loss at this point.

Sliding his good elbow back to press against the floor and lift himself back up, he all but shrieked at the pain that shot through him. The cry was abrupt and involuntary, rough and raw with pain. Blinking hard a few times with eyes that were glassy with agonized tears, he dropped the scroll and reached over to grab his injury again, although the gesture was starting to feel a bit late. His head was beginning to feel hazy, his thoughts starting to slow as if his mind had been stuffed with cotton.

 _Oh god_ , this was bad. Was he dying? Losing consciousness, definitely. How much blood could he stand to lose? If he passed out, what were the odds he was going to wake back up? Especially without any help-how long would it even take for Tyler to wake up again? For the others to find them? For Jack to come back? And-god, Tyler. They were both going to be laying out in the open, defenseless and vulnerable if the monster happened to come back.

But he was starting to feel himself slip away. Everything was starting to look distant, starting to sound distant, the world spinning. His eyes slid shut and everything went black, his grip on his injury loosening in consequence of his slipping consciousness.

Everything came in extremely confusing fragments after that.

 _“Ohhh, no. No! I’m not letting you-”_ The accented voice called his consciousness back briefly, which faded out again, then returned as his eyes slid open. His awareness was drowning in a fog of disorientation, uncertain how much time had gone by since he passed out. His vision was slightly blurry with darkness still clawing at the edges. Jack was leaning over him, features worn and strained with urgency and determination, as well as concern that was laced with panic. The Irishman didn’t seem to notice just yet that he was even awake. _“-time! Just-hang in there, Ethan. Hang in for just a little bit longer.”_

Ethan started to open his mouth just a little bit to reply, but no sound came out. Maybe for the better; in all honesty, he wasn’t sure he’d even be able to form a coherent response in his current state. But he could barely even feel the pain from his wound anymore, just an odd sort of warmth that started at the very bottom of the wound and seemed to crawl upward. A good thing, maybe? A bad thing? He couldn’t tell. Part of him couldn’t really work up the energy to care anymore, either.

And then a sudden searing pain that shot through the injury, invoking a confused and excruciated shout from him before he passed out again.

 

* * *

 

All was silent in the house as Mark and Bryan headed down the stairs, listening for any sound of the monster. “So tell me what this...monster is supposed to be like?” Bryan questioned, doubtful yet apprehensive at the same time. It just sounded too bizarre to believe, but considering all they’d witnessed so far... “I mean, we heard it, but Ken and I never actually saw it.”

“Big,” Mark replied. “Kinda like one of those gray aliens from pop culture. In fact it _is_ gray. Similar face, too. Uh-it looks pretty strong though. And it moves a lot faster than it looks.” He thought for a moment, but didn’t have to think long to remember the details. He was pretty sure he’d be seeing the creature in his nightmares for months to come if not longer. Assuming they actually lived that long-

No, no, don’t think about that. Stay positive, negative thoughts weren’t going to get them anywhere.

“Pretty sharp claws,” he continued. “Sharp teeth.” He made a face. “Really you just-you just have to see it.”

Bryan raised his eyebrows and sucked in a breath, shaking his head. “Considering everything I’ve heard so far, I really don’t think I want to,” he replied.

“God,” Mark muttered, shaking his head. “This whole thing is just a mess. We shouldn’t have come here-”

His words fell short when the two suddenly heard a shriek not too far off, having stepped off the stairs and about to go down the corridor leading towards the bathrooms. His eyes widened and he looked around in alarm. “That sounded like Ethan-”

Bryan looked toward the door in the back of the entrance hall, pointing it out. “It came from in there-”

Mark didn’t hesitate, quickening his pace to almost a run as he immediately made his way to the door and threw it open. A single step in and he caught sight of a nearby door to his right slam shut. Instinctively he moved to take a step in it’s direction, crossing the short distance to try the knob. Locked. “What the-?” he whispered. He knocked on the door several times, calling through it. “Ethan? Tyler? It’s Mark. Open up!”

Bryan meanwhile stood nearby for a couple moments before shaking his head and turning left, making his way over to the shoji walls nearby, curious. “This place has a full-on dojo?” he muttered. Actually kind of a shame this place was unuseable for the livestream. If not for the fact that there was some sort of murderous monster roaming around and the fact that they weren’t able to leave, it actually would’ve been perfect for some of the challenges they had in mind.

But once he reached the door-

His eyes went wide as his legs locked for a split-second in shock. “Holy shit-!” he exclaimed. The yelp immediately drew the attention of his companion, who looked over in alarm.

“What?” Mark asked, quickly starting over. “What is it?”

Bryan raised a hand to stop him. “You-” He stopped, shook his head, continued. “You should stay there for just a second. I don’t think you should see-”

Mark froze, staring, but then quickly rushed past him and into the dojo room. He stopped just a few paces after crossing the threshold as he took in the scene, torn between who to go to first. Noticing this, Bryan waved him away.

“You-go check on Tyler. I’ll go-” Bryan gulped, not looking forward to the grim task he was essentially volunteering for. “I’ll go see if Ethan’s okay.”

He wasn’t holding out much hope though. There was so much blood... _everywhere_ , and it was covering Ethan too, soaked through his clothes, especially on his right side. And he could see it all the way from the doorway: the blue-haired man was already so pale.

Mark lingered, staring at Ethan with a distressed frown on his face when Bryan waved him away. “Go, go!” Bryan ordered, willing himself to hurry to Ethan’s side. But it was enough to break Mark out of his indecisiveness, sending the other man over to Tyler’s side.

“Tyler? Tyler…” Mark muttered, checking over the taller man.

Bryan could hear Mark’s words but focused on the fallen in front of him, kneeling down next to him. “O...okay, dude, let’s see…” he whispered, reaching over to gingerly take Ethan’s wrist. Distantly he noticed a warm, wet sensation in the knees of his jeans, and when he looked down and identified the source, he steeled himself as much as he could in an attempt not to be sick. Already his jeans were getting soaked through with blood. _Ethan’s blood._

No, he had to shake it off, just...focus on the task at hand. Check the wrist for a pulse-uh-if there was one, it was _way_ too faint. Check the throat-

A breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding forced itself out in an exhale when he felt a pulse. A faint one, perhaps, but still a pulse. “Oh thank god,” he whispered. He glanced over at Mark. “He’s alive. He’s got a pulse,” he called over. “And Tyler?”

“Definitely alive,” Mark replied, relief flooding his voice. “I think he’s just unconscious.” There was still a frown on his face, the worry in his features was evident to the point that Bryan vaguely wondered if they’d become a permanent fixture if they stayed in this house for much longer. Satisfied that Tyler was going to be okay, Mark then rose up and quickly crossed the room, kneeling down on Ethan’s other side. One glance up at Mark told Bryan that he wasn’t the only one at risk of getting sick. “O...okay, let’s see what’s going on with Ethan.”

“Yeah-uh-hang on-” Bryan said, moving to carefully prop their fallen companion’s upper body up a bit.

Mark reached forward, looking Ethan over for a moment and deciding his best bet would be where the shirt on his shoulder was in complete and utter tatters. As he tugged at the fabric, he expected to see something gruesome-a gory wound still seeping with blood, but what he saw-

What he saw was a surprisingly clean if not somewhat blood-smudged shoulder underneath without a single scratch.

He blinked a few times, staring at the shoulder before looking up at Bryan to exchange an equal look of confusion. His eyebrows rose in a show that he was at a total loss with eyes still wide, he then shook his head. “I, uh-maybe the injury isn’t here? We should probably check underneath his shirt.”

“Y-yeah, probably,” Bryan agreed, too baffled to suggest anything otherwise. But then as he looked around at the area again, he added, “...Maybe it isn’t his blood?”

Mark tugged at Ethan’s shirt, checking his friend’s back and stomach for any wounds, then glancing up at Bryan. “You think this could be the blood of...what? The monster maybe?”

Bryan’s eyes fell upon the katana laying by Tyler’s side. “...Maybe?”

Following his gaze, Mark’s brows furrowed. “I mean, I guess it’s possible,” he began, staring at the sword, then over at Tyler. “But why would they fight it instead of run? And-” He gestured to the mess on the floor. “I mean, there’s a direct trail of blood from one spot to another a-and it’s looks like it’s all left along a path made by Ethan. Not to mention that so much of it is localized on his right shoulder-”

“I don’t _know_ , Mark, it’s just a suggestion,” Bryan interrupted. He sighed and shook his head. “Look-either way, we should probably get these guys back up to the safe room. Right? This doesn’t seem like a very good place to be.”

“Yeah…” Mark sighed, glancing back over to Tyler. “...Um-”

“I’ll help Tyler, you just-help Ethan,” Bryan advised, handing the blue-haired man over to Mark as he rose to his feet. Mark nodded, grateful the other had noticed the issues in height difference before he had to point it out.

“Okay, Ethan,” he muttered as he eyed his roommate, trying to figure out the best way to get him upstairs. “Let’s get you upstairs, huh?”

Carefully lifting him, he glanced back to see Bryan with one of Tyler’s arms around his shoulders. “Let’s go,” the other man instructed, slowly and carefully making his way to the door.

As Mark followed, he paused for a moment, eyes lingering on the side door he’d seen slam shut when they first came in. He still had no idea what that was, who...or why they would lock the door behind them. Felix did say something about the monster obeying a potential master, but...could he really be right about that after all?

Either way, he made a definite mental note to come back here and investigate. And in the meantime, hopefully they could actually learn something from Ethan and Tyler if they woke up.

 _When_ they woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ask and ye shall receive, the newest chapter is here! A bit shorter than I'd prefer, to be honest, but this seemed like a decent enough cut-off point. I see theories and concerns flying around in the comments! That's awesome, lets me know I'm not revealing too much or too little just yet. And as I keep saying, it definitely helps to motivate, both with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	11. Chapter 10

“Useless, useless...huh. Well now this sucks,” Cry remarked, holding up a can of Japanese beer with a frown. The vending machine had provided little in the way of anything useful. Riceballs, peppers, beer-what was even the point of all this stuff? He did manage to get some ammo from one of the buttons, which suggested to him that there might actually be a gun somewhere in the house, but until then…

The masked man let out a sigh. “Ah, this is all useless,” he finally concluded. He still had a couple more buttons to try and a lack of coins wasn’t really a problem, considering one of the brothers managed to find a pouch full of coins during their search. No, it was just...considering the turnout he’d gotten from this machine so far, he wasn’t really holding out much hope for anything  _ good. _

“I’m not really finding anything we can use,” J-Fred finally sighed, withdrawing his hand from a cubbyhole.

“Yeah, me neither,” Matthias seconded, absently glancing down at his hand, which held the last thing he pulled from the cubbyholes: a clock. “It’s probably about time we head upstairs and get the others too.”

Cry sighed, crossing the room a few paces to poke his head through the little archway and look at the brothers. “Yeah, okay. Just need to try a couple more buttons and I think we should be done here-” His eyes fell on the clock in Matthias’s hand. “What would an alarm clock be doing in here?”

J-Fred shrugged. “What would beer and riceballs be doing in here? Nothing really makes sense in this room,” he pointed out.

“No, wait, hang on-” Cry began, walking over the rest of the way to take the clock from Matthias’s hand. Looking it over with a small frown, he didn’t notice as the brothers eyed him with confusion and curiosity.

“What?” Matthias asked. “What is it?”

“Well it’s just-” Cry paused, debating. “...Yeah, I’m gonna try it.”

“What-”

That was about all J-Fred managed to get out when Cry suddenly dropped the clock and smashed it in with his foot.

Instantly a vision came flooding back.

_ “Hey, uh, the door’s actually unlocked here.” _

_ “Well, that’s one of them,” Ken remarked, heading back over. “Although it sounds kinda quiet.” _

_ “Just watch. They’re probably all in here hiding to scare us.” The masked man rolled his eyes as he opened the door and stepped inside. “Hello? Guys?” _

_ His eyes flickered around the library before he finally sighed. “Not here either. Where the hell is everyone?” _

_ “I don’t know, man,” Ken replied, walking in a few steps further. He paused, glancing back at Cry. “I’m gonna look a bit deeper in.” _

_ “Why?” Cry shook his head. “Eh. Alright, well, whatever. It’s fine, just don’t take too long.” _

_ “Not like we’re in a hurry to be anywhere. This is just to be sure,” Ken remarked as he headed deeper inside the library. As he headed off toward the back, Cry could hear him chuckle and call out in playful singsong, “Oh, senpai~” _

_ Cry shrugged and walked in further himself, over to the table with a number of books scattered across its surface. Idly he picked up one of the books, looking it over. He turned it over for a moment, opened it up to flip through it. Looked like it was all written in German. Flipping the book shut, his eyes skimmed over the title. “‘Uber...tragung von Gesundheit.’ A book about sneezing,” he remarked softly as he set the book back down. Making his way toward the back of the library, he went to join Ken. “Find anything?” _

_ “Nah, no sign of anyone,” Ken replied as he walked out of the aisle to join Cry. _

_ “Huh, well maybe they’re upstairs-” The masked man stopped when he noticed the expression on his companion’s face, staring over his shoulder at the door. “...What? What is it?” _

_ Cry turned around to see the monster standing in the doorway, its size taking up most of the frame, mouth dropping open and speechless for a brief second before speaking. “What the hell is that-?!” _

_ Too late, that thing was already charging straight for them- _

And suddenly he was back in the bathroom, blinking a few times as his hand went to his forehead. He shook his head for a second, processing what he just...recalled? Whatever just entered his brain-

“Oh yeah,” he muttered. “Ken and I were in the library before we realized there was a monster running around and...and I didn’t lock the-”

Wait.

_ What? _

“No...wait, that’s not right,” he then noted. “I didn’t even-I haven’t even run into Ken yet.” Looking around at his companions, he realized they looked a little spaced out as well. “Hey, uh, guys?” he asked.

Almost immediately the brothers seemed to snap out of it, both turning toward him. “What? Yeah-” J-Fred shook his head. “So what about the clock?”

Cry stared at the two for a second before finally asking, “Did you guys just see something?”

“See something? Uh-” Matthias frowned. “Remembered something, yeah-”

“Ah, yeah, you too?” J-Fred asked, glancing over at Matthias.

“What did you guys remember?” Cry asked, looking from one to the other.

J-Fred frowned while Matthias thought back. “Uh...running down the hall. With Mark,” he replied. He shook his head. “Nothing all that important.”

“Yeah, I just remembered getting here with you guys plus Bryan and Ken-” J-Fred added.

“Wait-wait-wait-” Cry interrupted. “‘You guys’?”

“Yeah, you and Matthias?” J-Fred affirmed. “We picked you up from the hotel after we landed, remember?”

Cry stared at the two, an awkward silence settling over the group before he broke it with the blunt reply, “I came here alone.”

J-Fred frowned. “What?” He looked over at Matthias. “Matthias, Cry was with us-right?”

Matthias shook his head, eyes a bit wide. “Uh-no. We got here with Bryan and Ken and then bumped into Mark. And then we bumped into Cry-” He paused, then turned his eyes back on Cry. “When  _ did _ we bump into you?”

Cry opened his mouth, shut it again, then tried to form an actual reply before shaking his head. “O-okay, okay, hold on.” He held up a hand for pause. This was just like before.  _ What the hell was going on? _ “Think for a minute, you guys. Think really hard about it. Just-backtrack for a minute, because something weird is going on.”

The other two were silent as they followed instructions. Cry knew the feeling. Those weird...visions, or whatever they were, would roll in like a fog and cover up what he could only describe as their real memories. It was possible to dismiss them, just wave it away-but it required vigilance and actively pushing them away to uncover the truth. But... _ how? Why? _

Finally Matthias blinked and looked over at Cry. “Yeah, okay. I remember now. We came here and split up. Checked this area, came back, then bumped into you. And then we came here because we heard the monster...and Mark should be finding Bryan and Ken.”

“Oh yeah, right,” J-Fred agreed, frowning as he rubbed one of his temples. “Why did I think we picked you up at the hotel?”

“Why did I think we ran into Mark already? We’ve barely been through much of this house or run into anybody else,” Matthias pointed out. He turned his attention on Cry. “I’m guessing you saw something too?”

“Yeah, me and Ken going into the library on the other side of the house to look for the others. I mean, I actually did that when I was searching, but I haven’t even run into Ken yet. And I had to find a key to unlock the door, plus-” Cry paused and frowned, deciding to recount what actually happened aloud for them as well as his own benefit. “Yeah, okay. So what  _ originally _ happened was that Jack was in the room when I entered. I didn’t lock the door behind me in either case, but in the vision, Ken and I were caught out in the open by the monster. In reality, Jack heard the thing coming and kept us in hiding until the monster was gone.”

“So these are supposed to be...what? False memories?” J-Fred suggested. “I mean, from the sound of it, most of these visions seem to be set in the past.”

“Yeah, but why?” Matthias questioned, frowning with confusion. “And why did they appear when we busted the clock?”

“I don’t know, but-” Cry frowned. “You know, Mark and Felix actually had similar visions to you guys when I broke another clock on accident.” He hesitated, not really wanting to go into detail about his last vision just yet, but needing to get the thought process out there for at least only a little bit. “And my vision involved some sort of room that I haven’t even seen yet. I don’t even know if it actually  _ exists _ , for that matter; it was some room with a cell-”

“There’s a  _ cell _ in this place?” J-Fred interrupted, staring.

“Like I said, I don’t know. I haven’t seen any rooms  _ remotely _ like that,” Cry replied. “So I’m not sure if they’re memories or visions of the future or...both…” Glancing down at the remains of the clock, he added softly, “Kinda starting to wonder if they might be like the tikis from Until Dawn.”

“Yeah, well we can be sure that the memories aspect is wrong, at least,” Matthias concluded. “In which case, is it even worth breaking any of the clocks to begin with?”

Cry frowned, finally looking up at them as he thought on it. Finally he replied, “The visions we get from the clocks suggest, not replace. So long as we know to separate reality from suggestion, I think we’ll be fine. Still, I probably wouldn’t recommend it-”

“I’m sensing a but in there-” J-Fred began.

“ _ But _ out of the two visions I’ve gotten so far...I dunno, there almost seemed to be an air of warning to them. Remember to lock the doors whenever entering a room, according to the most recent one. And then the one before that-” But he shook his head, catching himself. No. No, he wasn’t going to talk about that one just yet, especially considering he barely knew these two, relatively speaking. “Well. All I’m really saying is that these could actually prove to be useful.” Cry hesitated before continuing. “I don’t think we should discount these just yet. Breaking whatever clocks we come across might actually help us in the future.”

“If you say so…” Matthias said, although he still looked uncertain. He then gestured to the vending machine. “Anyway, you had a couple more buttons to try out?”

“Oh-yeah, one second. Lemme get these last ones and then we can go,” Cry said, hurrying back over to the toilet. “On the upside, at least we won’t starve? Maybe?”

“Maybe,” J-Fred said doubtfully, picking up the pouch containing the riceball to look it over. “All of this is probably expired by now though.”

Matthias picked up the box of ammunition, absently opening it just to double check its contents and ensure nothing was hidden inside. “I’m guessing it’s safe to assume there’s something in this house that these go to,” he remarked.

“One can hope,” J-Fred muttered with a sigh, casting an anxious look at the door.

“Well. I guess if worst comes to worst, we can grab some knives from the kitchen,” Cry muttered as he hit another button. Nothing, really, just a tomato. He set it down next to the mochi. “Alright. Final button!”

“Final button,” Matthias repeated with relief.

One coin inserted...nothing. Two coins...nothing. Three-

Cry frowned after about six coins, pressing the button again. “How many coins is this gonna take?” he wondered.

“Maybe it’s broken?” J-Fred suggested, watching as Cry inserted more coins.

“Or maybe it’s like a video game. Fifty tokens to get what you want or something,” Matthias added.

“God, I hope not. We’ve got a lot of coins, but it isn’t infinite,” Cry noted. Ten coins. “C’mon…”

“Maybe we should call it,” Matthias finally suggested.

“Wait, a couple more,” Cry said, adding another in. Button press. Nothing. Another coin. Button press-

A metallic sound suddenly rang out as something heavy dropped down into the slot. Cry’s eyes lit up as he reached in and withdrew a key. “There we go! Twelve coins!”

“That’s one expensive vending machine,” J-Fred noted. He shook his head. “You think that’s the key to the front door?”

“Considering all the coins we just spent on it, I think it’s a possibility,” Cry replied with an unseen grin. He pocketed the key, turning fully to the brothers. “Alright, let’s go.”

“ _ Finally _ ,” Matthias exclaimed, opening the door and stepping out, pausing to look around before waving the others forward and heading down the hall. The trio was barely on their way when they heard a distant scream, causing them to hesitate for only a split second to exchange looks alarm, then take off down the hall.

“Bryan?” Cry asked as they ran.

“I don’t think so-” Matthias replied between breaths as they rounded the corner. “Sounded like Ethan, maybe.”

“ _ Great- _ ” Cry muttered as they continued down the hall, the stairway in the entrance hall finally coming into view. “There’s the entrance hall-” He skid to a stop and looked around, eyes out for the monster, for someone cowering or injured, for- _ anyone, _ really. Or  _ anything _ . “I’m not seeing anyone.”

“It did come from here, didn’t it?” J-Fred questioned as he scanned the surrounding area.

“Definitely from this floor, yeah,” Cry agreed. “Maybe-ugh.” He shook his head. “Dammit. This place is  _ way _ too big. It did sound like it might’ve come from another room though. Thankfully, there’s not a ton of rooms on this floor-well. Not that I know of. Even less that are actually unlocked.”

“Okay, uh, which rooms?” Matthias asked.

“Uh-” Cry looked around. “Library, lounge-”

But before they had the chance to really start searching, the door on the back wall of the entrance hall swung open. Bryan was the first to emerge, struggling a bit with an unconscious Tyler, and Mark was soon to follow with a bloodied-up Ethan.

“Holy-!” J-Fred exclaimed, rushing over to the small group with Matthias on his heels, eyes wide. “What the hell happened?”

“We’re not exactly sure, we just found them like this,” Mark replied, shifting a bit to improve his grip on Ethan. Matthias walked over to look the young man over.

“Where’s the bleeding coming from?” he asked quietly. “He’s-” He swallowed, looking back up at Mark. “He  _ is _ still alive, right?”

Mark nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, he’s-” He breathed in deep and exhaled, the aftermath of his own recent panic still visible. “He’s alive. And strangely not bleeding from anywhere.  _ Somehow _ . Bryan and I checked for injuries-we didn’t see any.”

“Maybe it’s the blood of the monster?” Cry suggested, looking Ethan over as well. Leaning forward slightly, he peered at the torn fabric before continuing, “Although considering this…”

Mark sucked in a deep breath again and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s what we thought too,” he replied. “But no, there’s no injury underneath or anything.”

“And Tyler?” J-Fred asked, checking the other over and moving to help support the unconscious man’s other side.

“We’re pretty sure he just got knocked unconscious,” Bryan assured, although he didn’t exactly look a hundred percent positive either.

“I think it’s about time we regroup,” Mark said. “Considering recent events plus the fact that this is just about everyone.”

“You haven’t managed to find Jack?” Matthias asked.

Mark sighed. “Not yet, no. Although…” He glanced back at the door he just came through before shaking his head. “Well. I might have a couple leads I’ll be checking in the near-future.” Shifting Ethan again, he added, “Anyway. We should hurry upstairs to the safe room. I don’t like being out in the open with two injured.”

“Agreed.”

The group made their way upstairs and back to the safe room without incident, to which Cry gave a quick double-knock. “Guys? It’s us,” he announced, to which Ken opened the door. He blinked a few times, eyes wide when falling upon the injured.

“Oh, holy-” he started, opening the door wider to help those with Ethan and Tyler get through easier. “What  _ happened?! _ ”

Mark noticed Felix shifting a little in the armoire in a pained attempt to get a decent look. “We’re actually trying to figure that out,” Mark replied. “But we’re pretty sure they got attacked. Obviously.”

“Yeah, obviously-” Ken shook his head, watching as Mark set Ethan down on the bed.

“Oh, uh-” J-Fred tugged off his backpack once Tyler was set down close to the bed and unzipped it, rummaging around before pulling something out. “Here.”

Mark took the fabric as it was passed to him. “What’s this?” he asked.

“Oh yeah,” Matthias murmured. To the others, he explained, “We made everyone some Team Edge shirts. Considering this one isn’t soaked through with blood-”

“Thanks guys.” Mark set to work with carefully removing the torn and bloodied shirt. As he did so, a sharp eye kept a lookout for any wounds that might’ve been missed but-nothing. Oddly nothing, which wasn’t a bad thing, just... _ weird. _ There was still some blood smudging on the skin-surprisingly not as much as one would’ve thought, and bizarrely even less so around where they would’ve figured a wound would be. But okay, whatever. It wasn’t the weirdest thing going on here, and it was probably more of a blessing in disguise. It wasn’t so bad that blood would be soaking through this shirt too, at least.

As he got the new shirt onto Ethan, he could hear Bryan explaining how they found Ethan, how they regrouped, etc. And then Cry explaining how they checked the vending machine and all its buttons and managed to get a key, how it would hopefully go to the front door.

He wasn’t ready to get up all his hopes on that just yet though. For all the trouble this house was putting them through, it almost seemed too easy.

And then Cry went on to explaining what happened when they broke the clock.

“Wait a minute-” Felix started, frowning. “So they  _ all _ do that?”

“Yeah. And I’m starting to think every room has a clock, too,” Cry replied. “I mean, there was one in the  _ bathroom _ for crying out loud, so.” He shrugged.

“But if the clocks are giving us fake memories, we should steer away from breaking them, shouldn’t we?” Ken proposed. “After all, we don’t want ourselves all confused in this place.”

“Maybe, but the fake memories are easy enough to navigate out of-it just takes a little bit of effort and backtracking,” Cry replied. “And anyway, I’m not sure all of these are exclusively just memories. I think I wanna break a few more, just as tests if nothing else.”

“Well-I mean, I guess if we can’t get out of here anyway...” Mark glanced around at the others and shrugged, finally letting out a sigh. “Alright, so everyone’s present now except Jack. I guess I’ll head out and keep searching-there’s actually one or two places I think I’d like to check-”

“I’ll come along too,” Cry jumped in. “I still have yet to try out this key. Plus-” As much as he didn’t  _ want _ to believe the first vision he got and wanted to rule it out as fake with absolute certainty, it still nagged at him. He couldn’t even remember all the complete details to it-some of it was already starting to fade away like a bad dream. But the residual emotion from it was still there. “Since we can help it now, I really don’t think we should have anybody out wandering alone.”

“You guys sure?” Felix asked, frowning. “We  _ just _ got almost everyone regrouped and now you’re splitting off again?”

“Just the two of us,” Mark assured. “Besides, like you said:  _ almost _ everyone. We can’t stop searching until  _ everyone _ is together.”

“I guess, just... “ Felix glanced over at Ethan and Tyler before letting out a sigh. “Dammit, just... _ be careful _ , okay? It’s bad enough three of us are in bad shape-well, probably.” His eyes flickered to Ethan and he shook his head slightly, not knowing  _ what _ to make of his condition. Something seriously weird was going on here, for better or worse-and to be honest, he wasn’t completely sure he wanted to find out what it was.

“Yeah, wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mark assured, to which Cry nodded in reassurance.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be watching his back,” he promised.

“Cry and I will be back in, uh, I guess an hour?” Mark began, starting to pull out his phone before remembering its uselessness last time. He nearly put it away when he stopped, staring.

Bryan raised his eyebrows. “What? What is it?” he asked.

“The time on my phone is different,” Mark muttered.

“Well, I mean-yeah, it would be. Time has passed-” Felix began, to which Mark shook his head.

“Nonono, I mean it’s  _ changed _ . By  _ hours _ , not minutes-”

Cry frowned and pulled out his phone. “Huh. Mine hasn’t changed by too much, but…” he began. He looked over at Felix. “Felix?”

Felix pulled out his own phone to check, blinked a few times, his eyebrows raising. “Uh-yeah,” he replied. “This...this is different, yeah.”

“What time do you got?”

“8:51. You?”

“8:51 also. Mark?”

“Uh, same time,” Mark replied, staring at his phone.

Cry looked around at everyone. “Alright, everybody check their phones, I wanna check something.” He watched as everyone checked their phones before asking, “Does anyone’s phone  _ not _ say 8:51 right now?”

Silence, which was finally broken by J-Fred. “What exactly are we figuring out?”

“Just an idea-” Cry began, but then he shook his head. “I’m gonna see about testing it further when Mark and I go looking. Just-we’ll set our timers to an hour later. Someone in here as well as one of us. And we’ll just see what happens after that.”

“Alright…” Matthias began, frowning. “Be careful.”

“Again, we wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mark assured. Turning to Cry, he asked, “You ready?”

“Yeah, let’s get going,” Cry agreed, heading over to the door, doing the standard check and then heading out. Mark followed and as the door shut behind them, they could hear the unsettling click of the lock. The two tried to ignore it as they headed down the corridor and into the main second-floor hall, then down the stairs to the first floor in silence, straining their ears for any possible sounds of movement. Finally Cry cleared his throat (albeit somewhat awkwardly) before speaking. “So we’re looking for Jack.”

“Yeah,” Mark replied, glancing over at him as they first crossed the entrance hall to reach the front door. As Mark pulled the key they found in the safe room, he looked up at Cry. “My keys first or yours?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand next chapter is up! A bit slow of a chapter, but things will start picking up again fairly soon. And in the meantime, more pieces to the puzzle of what the hell is going on in this house. But so yeah, really appreciate all the support you guys give me, helps me in leaps and bounds with writing and posting this thing. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	12. Chapter 11

“Uh-yours,” Cry replied absently, letting Mark try his key in the lock first.

Nothing.

Second key?

Still nothing.

“Ah, no. Your turn,” Mark muttered, shoving the key back into his pocket.

“Yeah-” Cry agreed, trying out the key he got from the vending machine. To his dismay, it didn’t even fit. Unseen to his companion, his face scrunched a bit in annoyance underneath the mask, but he calmly pocketed the key, inhaled deeply, then exhaled, looking over at Mark. “Alright. So that’s not a thing.”

“Yeah,” Mark sighed, scratching the back of his head. Eyeing Cry, he added, “But so yeah, what about it?”

“Hm?”

“Looking for Jack. What about it?”

Cry hesitated for a second. “Well it’s just…”

Mark raised his eyebrows, tilting his head slightly as they made their way across the entrance hall to the door on the back wall. “Yeah?”

Cry was silent for a bit, but one glance at Mark told him that wouldn’t successfully end the subject. No, he had to open his mouth and now for better or for worse, there was an expectancy for him to continue. So he sighed, a small frown on his face as they headed through the door and into the dojo area. A wince flashed across his face at the sight of the blood everywhere and he noticed that Mark seemed determined to try and look at any part of the room that  _ didn’t _ hold any of those crimson stains. “It’s just-” He hesitated, picking his words as carefully as he could. “Okay. I don’t want to cast any bad thoughts or cause anyone to jump to conclusions, especially what with everything going on, so if we could just keep this to ourselves for the time being?”

Mark eyed him curiously. “Yeah, of course,” he replied. “I mean, provided you tell me what’s on your mind at all.”

Cry was silent for a while longer before finally choosing to voice his concerns. “...It’s about Jack.” His frown deepened underneath the mask and he self-consciously shoved his hands into his pockets as he felt Mark’s eyes on him. “Now-far be it from me to judge. This is actually my first time really meeting him in person; you actually know him a hell of a lot better than I do.” Another pause; he was stalling and they both knew it. “But is it just me or does something seem to be really...I don’t know- _ off _ about him?”

Mark was quiet for a while longer as he began searching the room and Cry could practically see the wheels turning in his head when he looked back at him. Finally Mark replied, “I do have some questions for him, definitely.” He looked back at him. “I get the feeling you mean something far more than that though. What are you suggesting, exactly?”

Cry shook his head. “I don’t know, man,” he replied honestly. “I just-you know. He didn’t seem  _ right _ when I was with him last? And then there’s your mention of how he got into a locked library, unless he found a second key. And just...he split from you earlier, right? Just like he split from me. Almost as if he was actively trying to isolate himself.”

“You don’t think he wants to be found?” Mark’s expression turned to one of confusion mixed with worry.

Cry shook his head. “At this point, I don’t know  _ what _ to think. And then…” There was definite hesitation this time and the mask certainly did little good to mask his uncertainty.

“And then?” Mark pressed, eyeing him.

“I just…” Cry’s voice trailed again before he finally shook his head. “No. I shouldn’t say anything. There’s a very likely chance that I’m wrong and if it starts anything-”

“ _ Cry. _ I’m not gonna tell anyone, alright? You can trust me,” Mark replied, an edge of impatience to his voice. “ _ What is it? _ ”

Cry thought for a long moment, biting his lip. Great, now he definitely went and made everything all tense. Why did he ever think it was a good idea to say anything?

Why did he think it was a good idea to come out here in the first place?

“The vision I got when we broke the first clock,” Cry began. “It wasn’t a memory, it...couldn’t have been. It was in some room we haven’t even come across, some sort of cell. Everyone was in it except Jack, who was getting us out, but…” The memory of the vision was still in his head, but already it was getting fuzzy around the edges. The passage of time was going to do it no favors. “Something was wrong. Wrong with  _ him _ .”

Mark stared, noticeably alarmed. “Do you know what it was? How did the vision end?”

Cry shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t get to see enough of it to actually tell one way or another.” He strained his memory as he thought back, finally repeating quietly, “‘I figured you’d want those last moments for saying your prayers instead.’”

Mark’s eyes widened slightly. “That sounds like the words of someone who would try to  _ kill _ us.”

“He might’ve been. His voice and his face? Wasn’t very nice,” Cry replied grimly. “And it’s not like anyone in the vision was injured.”

“But these memories and visions are  _ fake _ , right?” Mark questioned, uncertainty betraying his tone. He didn’t wait for an answer as he shook his head and turned away to walk a few paces. “No, no, no, no, no. There’s got to be a mistake. Or-the vision couldn’t be real. This is  _ Jack _ we’re talking about here. He wouldn’t try and...and  _ kill _ us-”

“I know. Believe me, I know,” Cry replied automatically. “Like I said, I didn’t really wanna say anything because I knew that… I-I kinda suspected it was bullshit from the beginning.” Noticing his words seemed to provide little comfort to his companion, he added, “Hey, listen. This house is actively trying to confuse us, okay? Maybe even turn us against each other, just in case the monster doesn’t manage to get us. We  _ have _ to believe in the rest of the group, otherwise there’s no getting out of this mess.”

Mark nodded, hands in his face for a moment before dragging them down. “You’re right,” he replied. “You’re right. I mean, we’re already trapped inside a house with an alien monster; why would a scheming homicidal house that gives people fake memories and visions be so difficult to believe at this point?”

“Uh, right-” Cry seconded. He paused, considering those words for a moment before adding, “I guess.” Shaking his head, he decided to move on to other things. “Anyway. Check your phone.”

“Huh?” Mark gave him a curious, sideways look, welcoming the distraction from his own doubts. “Why?”

“Just check it. I kinda got a theory.”

His companion frowned but pulled out his phone, checking it. “Ugh, the time is off again,” he noted. Turning it to face Cry, he added, “6:58.”

Cry pulled out his own phone. “7:15.”

“Not too much of a difference, but…” Mark pocketed the phone. “That is so weird. Why were they all sync’ed when we were back upstairs in the saferoom? What could’ve made them unsync again?”

Cry mulled over it for a moment before suggesting, “I think we should find the clock to this room.”

“What?” Mark gave him a troubled look. “But the visions that’s going to come from breaking it-”

“Might be fake, might even be trying to wedge us apart,” Cry finished. He sighed, not even wanting to suggest that they could be accurate or true. Still… “But they might still be relevant in some way-warnings or at least telling us what areas to look out for in the near-future. Besides, I’m wondering if there might be something else to them.”

“Well I guess if we’re looking for the key in this room anyway…” Mark sighed.

As Cry began checking around, he gave Mark a sideways look. “The key huh?” he asked. “I thought we were looking for Jack?”

“I-” Mark seemed at a loss for words for a moment before he replied, “I think  _ something’s _ around here. It’s mainly just-” He looked over toward the door they came through. “There’s a door on the far end of the room, you know, right next to the one we came through? And I  _ know _ I saw it slam shut when Bryan and I came in here. Thing is, when I tried it, it was locked.”

“You really think that might’ve been Jack?” Cry questioned.

“I...I don’t know  _ who _ it could’ve been, but I do know that the monster generally doesn’t lock doors. At least, not that we’ve seen so far,” Mark replied.

“But why would Jack run from  _ us _ ? Why would he lock the door behind him-?” Knowing that Mark wouldn’t have any answers, he quickly followed with, “Nevermind. We’ll ask him if we see him.  _ When _ we see him. If he’s in there.”

Mark nodded absently, reaching up onto a shelf to pull down a clock. Eyeing it for a moment, he then turned to Cry. “Here. Found it.”

“Good. Now smash it,” Cry instructed. “And I guess, uh...brace yourself. I guess.”

Mark looked reluctant but shrugged, dropping the clock and stomping down hard-

_ This room… _

_ Yeah, he remembered now. He was standing in the doorway and… _

_ Oh god. Right. How could he forget? _

_ Ethan was right in front of him, just across the room. They’d just stumbled across him but they were late. Way too late at this point. _

_ The blue-haired man was sprawled out across the floor, a thick red puddle of blood pooling out around him and only growing larger every second. Cry started to take a step forward, but was stopped by an arm in front of him. Right as a demand of what the hell was about to slip his lips, his words dropped off at the sound of a heavy creak nearby. He took a step closer to the center of the door, seeing what the paper door had blocked from his view: the monster-no.  _ A _ monster several feet from Ethan. A monster, because this one was different, slender and lithe with curved, wiry limbs, fingers long and curved and sharp like scythes. _

_ And on one of those scythe-like fingers was Tyler. _

_ Pierced through and hanging limply by his throat. _

_ Jack’s voice-quiet, low, and unusually calm-is what broke him out of his shock. _

_ “Run.” _

“No, this is wrong,” he whispered, the vision suddenly dispersing from his mind’s eye. “Th-they made it, they’re fine-”

“Cry?” Mark asked, drawing the masked man’s attention. Mark was staring at him with a mix of worry and curiosity. “What did you just see?”

Cry realized his mouth was still hanging open a little, still somewhat dazed, but didn’t yet bother to close it. He blinked hard a few times, drawing in a breath that was somewhat uneven. Mark took a small step forward, unsure what to expect, to which Cry finally shut his mouth again with a confused, troubled frown.

“Tyler and Ethan,” Cry finally replied quietly, voice still stunned. “They were...they were dead.”

Mark’s eyes went wide, paling a fraction. “What did you just say?”

“They were right here, there was a monster that killed them-” Cry fell short before dropping his forehead into his hand and shaking his head, as if trying to clear away a haze. Still...there were just some things that really couldn’t be unseen. “No.  _ Ugh _ . No, that’s not right. That’s-” He looked back up at Mark, who remained staring at him. “It-okay. Ethan was lying...there.” He pointed to the spot close to the large bloodstain on the floor. He made a face, unable to ignore the more recent spot. “Pretty much in the state you guys found him in, just...he was  _ actually wounded _ . And Tyler…” Cry looked away, unwilling to see Mark’s expression. “Tyler was dead.” He paused, reflecting on the vision in an attempt to be sure. “Yeah. Definitely dead.”

He then shook his head again. “But-but that was almost more of a ‘what if’ kinda vision! It looked like what  _ could’ve _ happened to them if...uh…”

Actually, that was a good question.

Why  _ didn’t _ the monster finish them off?

“If there wasn’t whatever interference there must’ve been this time around,” he finally concluded lamely. This explanation caused him to frown though, following up the thought with, “Come to think of it, why  _ didn’t _ that monster finish them off?”

Interference.

But then Mark thought Jack could’ve been behind a locked door in here-

Huh. So could it have been Jack after all?

Mark stared for several long moments, silence filling the room before he finally snapped out of it. “O-okay, hold on. You said that they were…” His words fell short, unwilling to repeat the context of the vision. As if saying it was going to make it all come true. “That it was  _ a _ monster? Not  _ the _ monster? The one that’s been chasing us?”

“Yeah,  _ a _ monster. Totally different one.” Cry made a face underneath the mask, adding, “Well, not completely different, but different enough. This one was skinnier, more wiry-actually kinda reminds me of the wendigo from Until Dawn, now that I think about it. Only with all-black eyes. And the fingers were like freaking  _ scythe blades _ , man-”

“So what you’re saying is that there might actually be more than one monster in this house-” Mark sighed and shook his head, frustrated. “Dammit. Ethan and Tyler really need to wake up. Soon.” Focusing back in on Cry, he asked, “Do you remember anything else from the vision? Was anybody else with you?”

Cry remembered the arm in front of him, the voice that told him to run. He didn’t remember looking to the owner of the arm or the voice, but he was already pretty sure they were one and the same. “Jack,” he finally replied. “He uh-I think he stopped me from walking in there just in time. And he told me to run-” He paused, brows furrowing. “Thing is, he didn’t really seem all that scared. In fact he was almost...calm.” Seeing that Mark’s confusion was definitely matching up with his own now, he continued, “Yeah. I’m pretty confused too.”

“God, this doesn’t make any sense,” Mark sighed, dropping his face into his hands.

Cry gave him a sideways look, contemplating. “Well, I mean-what did you see?”

“Uh-” Mark dragged his hands about halfway down his face, looked around, then dropped his hands entirely and crossed the room to where they found Tyler. “I just-I didn’t see anything much.” He reached down, picking the katana up off the ground. The point of it was wet and stained with an color that was too dark, too black to be blood. Or at least-it certainly wasn’t  _ human _ blood, at any rate. “Just me and Felix kinda dicking around with this thing.” He turned back to Cry with a look of concern. “Nothing at all like what you saw-”

He paused, then added, “Come to think of it, have all of your visions been like this?”

Cry blinked slowly. “What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.

“You know what I mean,” Mark replied. “Like-the rest of us seem to get visions or fake memories or whatever-and I think normally they’re just harmless. Whatever you’re seeing doesn’t sound anything like that. I mean-for crying out loud, you saw a room we’re not even sure  _ exists _ yet. And considering how badly you space out whenever it happens-” His explanation fell short as he eyed the masked man. “What makes you so different?”

Cry stared in silence, startled. Mark  _ did _ have a point. Granted, he didn’t have the answer to his question either, but it was definitely a legitimate point. What the hell was going on? What was  _ happening _ to him?

Finally he shook his head slowly. “I...I dunno,” he finally replied, troubled and finally tearing his eyes away to glance down at the bloodstain nearby. “That is a very good question though. I wouldn’t mind getting the answer…” After a second, he added quietly, “I wouldn’t mind getting a  _ lot _ of answers right about now.”

“You and me both,” Mark agreed, looking the katana over. But finally he sighed, looking back at Cry and holding up the blade. “Well. At least we have another weapon now.” His brow furrowed as he cast it a glance, adding in a mutter, “For what little good it did for the others, anyway.”

“Hey, something is still better than nothing,” Cry pointed out. Remembering what his original experiment was, he looked down, reaching into his pocket. “Ah-! By the way. Check your phone.”

“Huh?” Mark glanced over, curious.

“Your phone. I wanna know what time it’s got.”

Mark raised his eyebrows in intrigue as he fished out his phone and checked it. They raised higher upon noticing the time. “9:17.”

“Same,” Cry replied, staring at his own phone.

Mark pulled his eyes away from the screen with a look of realization. “Hang on, so wait-” His gaze returned to his phone. “So every time we break a clock, we’re fixing our phones?”

“Uh-” Cry’s response was soft, lost in thoughts and theories that were now racing through his head at a million miles a minute. “Well, I mean, I guess that’s one possibility,” he replied hesitantly. One, but not the only-

No, what was he thinking? Of  _ course _ that was it. There was another theory that was riding the current of his thoughts but that couldn’t be it. No way. This house was  _ weird _ , but it wasn’t a video game or an anime. It wasn’t exempt from reality.

Shaking his head, he drew in a breath to steel his resolve. “No. You’re right. I don’t know how or... _ why _ , exactly. But that has to be it. It’s really the only explanation that makes sense. And the hallucinations...hell, man, I don’t know. For all we know, it could be releasing some kind of chemical or...who know’s what...that could just be messing with our heads. For a few seconds. Or something. I dunno.”

“I guess…” Mark whispered, quiet and still as he took it all in and mulled it over for a bit. But finally he broke out of his spell, dragging a hand down the back of his neck with a sigh. “Well. Either way, at least now we know  _ that _ . That must’ve been why Tyler and Ethan thought I was gone for longer than I actually was-or why my alarm didn’t go off in time. I dunno.”

“Right,” Cry agreed with a nod, looking around, then back at Mark. “So I’m not seeing any keys or anything. I mean we could give the door a try again, but…”

“Yeah,” Mark agreed, heading over to the second door in the room. “Well. At least we got ourselves another weapon. And we broke the clock.”

“At least.” As they stopped by the second door, Mark gave the knob another twist, the door another rattle. He frowned and gave the door a smack-not too loud, mind, not wanting to draw any monsters to them, but a substantial one at least. “Oh  _ c’mon! _ ”

Cry’s eyes trailed up and down the door before settling on a spot at the foot of it. “Mark,” he said, reaching down and pulling the key that was sticking out halfway. He rose, straightened, held it up to show his friend. Mark eyed it and took the key to examine it closer.

“What the hell was it doing under the door?” he wondered.

“Another question to add to the pile, I guess,” Cry replied, the only answer he could find at the current time.

Mark gave a shrug. “Well. Let’s see if it works on this one,” he said. Trying the key on the lock, they were both surprised when it actually twisted with a soft ‘click’.

“Hey-” Cry began, to which Mark met his look with (unknowingly) equal surprise.

“It worked,” Mark finished. He withdrew the key, pocketed it, then reached forward and twisted the knob. The door swung open to a narrow corridor, to which his face scrunched up into a look of distaste. “Oh man. One of these things again.”

“Huh?” Cry asked, glancing over at him curiously.

“There’s a narrow hallway like this upstairs. To the-uh-to the conference room.”

“Oh,” Cry noted, peering down the corridor. “You’re not claustrophobic or anything, are you?”

“No, no, it’s just that it’s really only wide enough for single-file. Can you imagine having a run-in with the monster in there?” Mark paused, considered, then corrected, “Well. One of them, anyway.”

In spite of the shudder Cry had to suppress, he glanced back over at Mark. “We can lock the door behind us. You want me to go first?”

“Nonono. It’s fine, just uh-fingers crossed.” Offering Cry a small grin that was still tainted with uncertainty, he held up the katana. “Besides, I’m the one that’s actually armed-right?”

“Uh-well I mean, if you say so,” Cry replied, unwilling to argue. So instead he made a gesture to the narrow corridor, stepping aside. “In that case...after you, I guess.”

Mark nodded, heading down the hall with the katana pointed ahead of him, Cry making sure to lock the door behind him. The corridor was long, longer than they’d realized at first, and dimly-lit, only adding to the eerieness. But after several long seconds of baited breath, they finally emerged out into another long room similar to the last with a door on the other side and an adjacent alcove that went a ways back. The wooden floors of the room ended at the entrance to the alcove where more tatami mats rested, and a couple doors were situated into the back wall.

“No Jack in here,” Mark murmured as he looked around.

“Yeah. No monster, either,” Cry agreed. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he turned his attention to the doors in the back of the alcove. “Well. If there’s a key in here, at least it’s gonna be fairly easy to find.”

“We can hope,” Mark agreed as he followed. As each of the men checked the doors and found they belonged to closets, a glint caught Cry’s eye, causing him to reach down and pick up the key.

“Got it.”

Mark looked over, a small grin crossing his features. “Hey, you’re good at this,” he replied. Cry chuckled in response.

“Well, not really. Nothing else in that closet but dust.”

Mark took the key, looking it over. “One step closer,” he said, in just as much attempted reassurance to himself as it was to Cry. “One step closer to getting us out of here.”

“Or at least figuring out what the hell is going on,” Cry agreed.

The duo moved to head back into the main room, en route to the door at the end, but suddenly Cry paused with a frown. “Wait, wait, hang on,” he suddenly whispered, holding his arm out to stop Mark. At the curious sideways look Mark gave him, he continued, “Do you hear that?”

Mark’s eyebrows shot up in alarm. By far, that was never a good question to hear in this place.

And sure enough, as silence settled over the area, it was suddenly pierced by a soft but high whine, as if someone in agonizing pain but attempting to keep it muffled. Or maybe they weren’t  _ able _ to make a sound, somehow gagged or something, but-

“Where’s it coming from?” Mark finally whispered, looking around before his eyes finally fell upon the spot in front of them. “Sounds like it’s coming from right there.”

Cry leaned forward a little as he peered at the spot.

“Monsters don’t make any noise,” Mark noted as he took a couple tentative steps forward, still speaking in a whisper.

“Mark-” Cry began hesitantly.

“ _ Humans _ make noise. Monsters just make footsteps. And the only human out wandering around except maybe a possible monster-owner is…” He slowly reached forward to cautiously grip the edge of the mat. “Jack? Are you in there?”

Cry started to walk forward, hand reaching out to grab his shoulder and pull him away. “Mark, I don’t think-”

Everything exploded before them.

Cry’s eyes bulged and he staggered back as Mark toppled and tumbled away, the lithe gray monster from the false memory landing before them and eyeing them, head tilting at an unnatural angle as another high whine emitted from its throat.

“Oh  _ fuck-! _ ” Cry exclaimed, frozen for a split second before rushing to Mark’s side to help right him and get him to his feet. As he did he caught flashes of red down Mark’s front and along his left leg, looking back at the monster and noticing a red wet shine to its scythe-like fingers. “Mark?!”

“Yeah, yeah, okay! Monsters can make noise!” Mark confessed, his voice laced with pain as he struggled to straighten and a hand gripping a spot over his chest.

“Nevermind about that, we gotta go!” Cry exclaimed. But  _ shit _ , where exactly were they supposed to go?! How well could Mark even run at this point? If he was slowed down in that narrow corridor, it’d ensure that one or both of them weren’t going to get away. There was the door at the other end of the room, locked or not, and even though they had a key, there was really no guarantee-

His eyes flickered to the dropped katana nearby and he swallowed hard, images of Ethan and Tyler from the false memory flashing through his mind. Oh god. Oh god, what was he  _ thinking _ , there was no way he could fight this thing. Could he draw it away, maybe?

Yeah, he was gonna have to. He really didn’t want to leave Mark alone, especially not in this state, but if he didn’t, they could both wind up dead.

“Mark, head to the other door,” Cry replied, slipping him the new key.

Mark eyed him, uncertain. “This key might not work in that-”

“Doesn’t matter, just so long as it  _ looks _ like you’re going the other way,” Cry replied.

“The other way-?” Mark repeated. His eyes widened further in realization. “Cry, no-!”

He wasn’t going to give Mark any time to argue.

He wasn’t going to give the other any time to stop him.

He wasn’t going to give  _ himself _ the time to have any second thoughts.

“Go!” Cry suddenly exclaimed, darting forward to scoop up the katana and ducking a swipe of the monster’s fingers. They nearly grazed him, he could feel the wind off of them, they came so close. But he stumbled a couple of paces, straightened, made his way to the narrow corridor as he caught sight of Mark taking off for the other door out of the corner of his eye. Just to be sure though…

“Hey!” He shouted, drawing the monster’s full attention towards him. He gave the creature a wave. “Betcha can’t catch me! Huh?”

The second he saw the monster make a move in his direction, he turned again to bolt down the narrow corridor.

All the while pushing down the ever-nagging feeling of deja vu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 is now up and posted, a bit longer than intended but this seemed like the best place to leave it. And within the next couple chapters, things are seriously going to start picking up again, more pieces to the puzzle will start falling into place (or at least appearing). But really appreciate the support so far to help with writing and posting this! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	13. Chapter 12

“Alright, I think that’s about everything, right?” Ken asked, glancing back at the others. At their nods and assurances, he turned back to the camera. “So Jack, hopefully you’ll find this soon. Hopefully you’ll find _us_ or we’ll find _you_. And once everyone’s here, we’re all getting out of this place together.” Hitting ‘stop’ he then turned to the others. “Guess I need to get this thing back outside.” 

“You should probably take a bro,” Felix advised. Shifting just slightly in an attempt to ease some of his own discomfort, he added, “Unfortunately, it ain't gonna be senpai.”

Matthias looked over from where he, J-Fred and Bryan were looking after Ethan and Tyler in the corner of the room. “I’ll go,” he volunteered.

J-Fred frowned slightly, uncertain. “You sure?”

“Sure, why not? It’s only just down the hall.” Matthias shrugged, pushing down any nerves. At the look J-Fred was giving him, he added, “It’ll only take _two minutes_. Don’t worry.”

“Yeah. We’ll even make sure to take the flamethrower with us,” Ken assured. Glancing over at Felix, he added, “If that’s okay?”

“Two minutes, yeah,” Felix replied, passing the flamethrower over to Ken. “That’s fine. There’s other people here now anyway.”

“Cool,” Ken agreed, passing the flamethrower on to Matthias as he already had the camcorder in hand. “You ready to go?”

Matthias drew in a deep breath. “Yeah. Ready as I’ll ever be,” he agreed, heading over to the door. Sparing one more glance to his family, he added in firm reassurance (for himself just as much as for them), “We’ll be back soon.”

“Yeah,” J-Fred muttered, getting up and heading over to lock the door behind them. “You’d better.”

“Two quick knocks, that’s the signal,” Ken reminded as he and Matthias stepped out into the hall. “Be listening for that.”

“You know we will,” J-Fred assured as he reluctantly closed the door behind the two.

Matthias and Ken headed down the hall, silent as they kept their ears open for the sound of any footsteps or voices or other various noises. So far, so good...with luck, this would go off without any real incident.

With luck.

As they suddenly heard a door slam downstairs and footsteps race about, they realized just how short they happened to be on that.

Exchanging a look, Ken hurried to set the camera on the chair as Matthias frowned, moving to the top of the stairs to peer down.

“Mark?” he called. “Cry? Jack?”

Hearing a thud in response, he turned back to Ken with a look of alarm. “Ken-”

“Oh-oh man. Uh-” Ken began, heading to join him at the stairs but looking thoroughly unnerved and uncertain. Shifting a little bit, he finally shook his head. “Okay. Well we have the flamethrower. Mark and Cry are unarmed. If it’s one or both of them-”

“You’re sure?” Matthias whispered, eyeing him. Ken had a point, but only one of them was actually armed. What the hell was Ken gonna do if the thing went after him?

“Well, I mean-we can’t just leave whoever it is down there,” Ken affirmed, even though he didn’t sound very sure himself. “Ah-hang on-” He reached into his pocket, fishing out a swiss army knife and flipping open the blade. “Alright, _now_ let’s go.”

Well. It was better than _nothing_ , at least.

“I know, but-” Matthias shook his head, although it did nothing to reassure him that this was the right choice. “Alright. Let’s do this.” He moved the hairspray and lighter into the proper position for a flamethrower and stepped forward to lead the charge. He would, after all, have the most range out of the two of them.

The two warily headed down the stairs, stopping about halfway down to see Cry in a crouch with katana in hand, facing some sort of slender monster with scythe-like claws. Matthias’s eyes widened. “Cry!” he exclaimed.

Cry glanced back at them, startled. The monster seemed to take this as an opportunity.

“Look out!” Ken exclaimed as the monster lunged forward.

“Oh, _fuck!_ ” Cry exclaimed, rolling out of the way but only barely.

“C’mon! This way!” Matthias called, waving him over. To Ken, he added, “Get ready to run.”

“Way ahead of you,” Ken replied, tensing and preparing to bolt.

Cry scooted back a bit, gradually climbing to his feet as the creature slowly turned around, emitting a high-pitched whine. The sound was enough to snap the masked man into action, darting for the stairs.

The creature was fast, _too_ fast. Cry barely made it up a few stairs when that _thing_ reached the first step, moving up after him-

“Cry! Move!” Matthias instructed, holding up his ‘weaponry’. Instinctively Cry pulled as far to the right of the stairs as he could, just a few steps from Matthias and then passing him when the lighter was flicked on and the button to the hairspray was mashed down. Instantly the air was lit with bright, hot flames, but there was still that second of flickering doubt. The stream of flame didn’t have nearly as much range as they’d hoped, and more to the point, what if this thing wasn’t affected by fire?

What if it just pushed straight up the flames and impaled their wielder, with the other two soon to follow?

_What if, what if, what if-_

But to their surprise, the creature suddenly let out an ear-piercing shriek and staggered back and down the stairs, losing its balance.

“Okay, now! Go!” Ken instructed, hurrying up the stairs and followed by the others.

“Safe room?” Cry suggested.

“Not until we’re sure that thing isn’t going to follow us!” Matthias replied, turning left as soon as they hit the second floor. Noticing only one door down the back left corridor, he asked, “Anyone know if that’s unlocked?”

“Yeah, it’s unlocked, don’t worry!” Ken replied as they rushed down the corridor. Already they could hear the sound of footsteps heading up the stairs, that horrible, awful whine coming from the creature. As they heard it reach the second floor and head in their direction, they quickly turned into the room with Cry slamming the door behind them, Ken giving it a shove and leaning on it for good measure while Matthias made sure the lock was twisted. They could hear the footsteps right outside the door now, the whine raising with intensity that caused the men to exchange looks-

“Woah!” Cry exclaimed as two of the claws suddenly shot through the door just over Ken’s shoulder. The bearded man practically jumped and backed away from the door.

“Holy-!” he exclaimed, but as the claws slowly slid back out, he pushed Matthias and himself just out of direct view as Cry quickly backed over to the other side. The trio waited in silence, not even daring to breath as the creature remained quiet on the other side, then suddenly broke that quiet with scratching and clawing on the door like an annoyed cat from hell. But after several excruciating minutes, they finally heard footsteps head off, presumably as the creature gave up.

Even then, it was still at least two or three minutes before anyone even dared to do much beyond any slight movement.

Matthias softly let out the breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding, turning to Cry. Even when he spoke at this point, it was in a whisper-just in case.

“ _That_ was the monster?!”

Cry shook his head. “No. Yes. That was _a_ monster. Apparently there’s more than just one.”

Eyeing Cry, Ken decided to go ahead and address the elephant in the room.

“Where’s Mark?”

Cry sighed. “Ugh, he’s-” He shook his head. “We got past the dojo room downstairs and into a whole other area. That thing came up through the freaking _floor_ and about cornered us. Mark was kinda hurt so I figured I’d stand a better chance running than he would-but I tell you what, that thing is _way_ faster than what I was expecting. There were seriously a few moments where I really thought it’d get me.”

“Yeah, no, we saw that,” Matthias replied. He shook his head. “Well-okay, about Mark. You said he was _kinda_ hurt? Define ‘kinda’.”

“Like-I dunno. He got a cut up his front and up his leg somewhat but to be honest it all happened in a matter of seconds and I couldn’t get a very good view of it,” Cry replied. “It didn’t look too super serious but it did look like it’d slow him down. I figured he’d stand a better chance if we split up and I lured it away, so…”

“Sounds like whatever these things are, they’re doing a decent job of keeping us apart,” Ken noted. “And I’m guessing you guys didn’t manage to find Jack?”

“Not even close,” Cry admitted. “But-uh-” His eyes swept the room and he quickly moved to the other end of the room to start searching the shelves.

“What are you-?” Matthias asked, watching him.

“Looking for the clock,” Cry replied.

Matthias blinked but then cringed. “Oh, not that again,” he replied. “Can’t it wait?”

“Not if we want to straighten out the time issue,” Cry replied.

“Hold on, what are you-”

“There’s something going on with the clocks,” Cry replied. “Mark and I discovered that whenever you break one, everyone’s time syncs back up-false memories and visions aside. And the memories and visions that come with it-uh-hallucinations, I guess-are probably being caused by some sort of chemical being released from them. Something to discourage someone from fixing the problem, probably. And hey, there might even still be a key hidden away in here.”

“What a weird house,” Matthias murmured, letting out a sigh. But then he shook his head, anxious. “Alright, so long as we can make this quick. The others are gonna be wondering where we are by now.”

Cry nodded, checking the bookshelves on one side of the room while Ken looked through the drawers on the other side and Matthias checked under the bed. After a second Matthias held up a key. “Well, I find the key,” he announced.

“Good. Now we just need that clock,” Cry replied.

“Done and done,” Ken announced, heading over to meet them with an alarm clock in hand. “Time to break it, right?”

“Oh. Uh-” Cry looked the clock over and nodded. “Yeah, go for it. And uh-brace yourselves, I guess.”

Ken dropped the clock, giving it a stomp-

_Suddenly Mark and Felix and Bryan were in front of him, all of them looking tense, even borderline panicked. And it was easy to see why-Jack was laying on the floor, unconscious and drained of color as blood flowed from his gut, from his head. The red stain was everywhere. The Irishman was in such bad shape and yet why…_

_Why was everybody focusing on_ him _and not Jack?_

_Oh yeah. Oh yeah, his mask was currently off and his head hurt. That might have something to do with it-_

_He looked down at his hand, seeing blood. But then, something else-an intricate circle of cyan light that had blossomed right over his fingertips, shining against the crimson._

_Mark frowned, eyeing him from his spot by Jack’s side. When he spoke, his voice was wary, protective._

_“Cry, what are you doing?”_

_Wasn’t it obvious? What_ has _to be done, of course. Cry opened his mouth to respond-_

Suddenly he was snapped back to reality, looking into the faces of Matthias and Ken. He glanced down at his hand as if half-expecting to see the circle and/or blood still there, but then back up at the others again. Looking back up, he saw Ken take a step forward, frowning.

“Cry?” he asked. “You alright, man?”

Cry was thankful for his mask, thankful that it was shielding what he was really feeling at the moment. Not trusting his own words just yet, all he did was nod silently in reply. But the reality was...no, no, he wasn’t alright. So many questions were spinning through his head now. Why was there blood on his hand? What the hell was that light? And why was his mask off and-

And what the hell happened to Jack?

Dear god. _Did he do that to Jack?_

_Why?_

Didn’t matter, it...it wasn’t real. It wasn’t real.

Or at least, he _hoped_ it wasn’t real.

Regardless, his nod was enough to satisfy Ken, the other man turning his focus to Matthias.

Matthias, who looked...suddenly extremely uneasy.

“Matt-?”

“We’re sure these visions aren’t real, right?” Mattias suddenly asked, some of the color having drained from his face.

“Not real or...haven’t yet happened?” Cry replied, grateful for the sudden distraction. “Why? What did you see?”

Matthias was silent, still seeming to recover from the vision, looking emotionally exhausted and a little sick all of a sudden. Cry frowned, tilting his head and taking a small step forward.

“Matt?”

“Me and you,” Matthias suddenly spoke up, staring at Cry as if daring him to confirm. “I remembered me and you going into some other bedroom in this place and…” His breath suddenly became shaky as he looked away, blinking hard. “We...we found Joey and Bryan...dead on the floor-”

Cry’s mouth dropped open as they stared at Matthias, a grim silence settling over which was finally broken by Ken walking over and putting an arm around his shoulders to give him a reassuring pat. “Hey, it wasn’t real. Alright? None of these visions are real,” Ken reassured.

“Yeah, I’m sure these visions are just...they’re probably just playing off our fears and crud,” Cry seconded. Because he was a fine one to talk, still reeling from his own last vision.

“Yeah!” Ken assured. “Joey and Bryan are fine. They’re taking care of Ethan and Tyler with Felix, remember?”

Matthias nodded shakily, looking significantly reassured by their words. “I-yeah, I’m sure that’s probably it,” he replied. “Now that I think about it, it didn’t feel all that real anyway-” He took a deep breath and nodded again, looking from one companion to the other. “Thanks, guys.”

“Hey, don’t mention it. This place seems like it’s out to get us in every way. We’ve gotta have each other’s backs if everyone’s getting out of here alive,” Cry replied. “But we should probably take the hint from that vision and get you guys back to the safe room.”

“And you?” Ken asked, frowning at Cry. The masked man shrugged.

“I’ve gotta go find Mark,” Cry replied. “And Jack, assuming that’s still a thing. But I’ll follow you guys to the saferoom, make sure you both get there alright.”

Not to mention, while he did need to regroup with Mark as soon as possible, the prospect of wandering these halls alone made him anxious. It was something he’d _have_ to do, just...in a few minutes.

He hoped it was a decision he wouldn’t regret making.

* * *

 

“Goddammit, Cry-” Mark hissed as the masked man took off down the corridor. Yeah, sure the distraction worked, but _holy shit_ that thing was fast. Was he even gonna manage to escape?

Mark shook his head, making his way over to the door on the far side of the room. When he reached it, he gave the doorknob a jiggle to prove what he’d already suspected: locked. Alright, well he had three keys now, all of which went to unknown locations. Maybe one of them would allow him to press on forward, although now he was starting to have doubts-at least as far as the original mission went. Clearly the thing that went this way when they found Ethan and Tyler was the monster that just attacked them. Jack wouldn’t be back here, certainly not any deeper than this. Even if he had reason to, _how?_ Unless these doors were originally unlocked from the get-go or there were a bunch of duplicate keys floating around…

Still, he couldn’t ignore the claw marks carved deep into the door. Almost as if that thing tried getting to something before going off to lie in wait…

Frowning, he searched one of his pockets for a moment, finally withdrawing the keys he’d collected so far and thumbing through the ones he already knew the locations to. At this rate they’d probably have to start labeling them soon, but...hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary. Hopefully everyone would regroup and just straight-up figure out a way out of here that didn’t require scouring every inch of this place.

First unknown key, nothing. Second unknown key, same thing. Third...

Third there was an actual click as it twisted in the lock. Withdrawing it, he paused to listen for just a second, just to make sure there wasn’t anything on the other side of the door. Hearing nothing, he grasped the knob and twisted, pulling open the door to step inside.

The room was empty. Just a stark white, from the walls to the smooth concrete floor underneath. The only thing in the room really was a small white light fixture that was screwed in up above and-

The soft sound of breathing caught his attention, to which he quickly twisted around to see the huddled figure of an Irishman in the corner.

“Jack!” he exclaimed, hurrying to the young man’s side and kneeling down next to him, wincing at the pain that shot through his injuries with the action. Looking him over, it didn’t _seem_ like he was badly injured or anything-just asleep. Asleep and maybe a little pale with red blotches crawled up his neck from overheating, but still almost frail in a way and vulnerable, practically curled in on himself. His arms were crossed over his chest, wrapped tightly around an unidentified leatherbound book.

But why was he _sleeping?_ Here? And at a time like this? What the hell was going on with him?

The American could already hear alarm bells going off in his head as he reached forward to grasp Jack’s shoulder and give him a light shake. In spite of his concerns and questions, he managed to keep his voice soft and gentle-no point in making a ruckus and drawing any monsters to their location, after all.

“Jack?” he called quietly. “Jack, wake up-”

The Irishman suddenly sucked in a sharp gasp as his eyes shot open, staring at Mark for several long moments as he tried to catch his breath, then looking around wildly.

“Hey- Hey, Jack, it’s okay. It’s me. It’s just me, okay?” Mark assured, eyeing the man. It didn’t quite seem to be registering for Jack as to where they were or...or what was going on. The younger man looked bewildered, disorientation in his wide eyes and weighing heavily on his features. In spite of the lingering look of exhaustion, a panicked alertness shined in his blue eyes.

Said eyes finally came back to settle on him, staring again as the words took a minute to register. Finally Jack spoke, voice sounding a bit rough from recent waking and-Mark suspected-dehydration.

“What happened? Where is everyone?”

“Everyone’s fine. They’re in a safe room,” Mark reassured. Well, everyone except Ethan, Tyler, Felix, and then Cry was still out there running around, but he wasn’t about to tell Jack that. Not yet, anyway. First his friend desperately needed to _calm down_.

Jack’s breath gradually started to even out as he looked over at the open door. “The door-” he pointed out.

“Oh. Yeah, I’ll get it,” Mark assured, getting back up and heading over to the door to pull it shut and lock it. Turning back to Jack, he could see the other man was already rising to his feet but wavering-

Yeah, there was a definite sway to him.

“Hey, hey, easy now-” Mark chided, hurrying back over to Jack as quickly as he could manage and reaching out to steady him.

Jack didn’t push him away or anything, but rather looked him over as he came near. There was an odd look flashing through his blue eyes-what was it, exactly? It almost looked like…

Shame?

Guilt?

But no, why would that even be a thing? As Mark watched the Irishman glance away for a moment, then back up at him, he figured he must’ve been imagining it.

“You’re not,” Jack pointed out bluntly, breaking him from his thoughts.

“Huh?”

“You’re not fine,” Jack specified tiredly, tucking the book under one arm while reaching up with his free hand to rub his eyes.

“Oh-” Mark looked down at his own injuries, which were still bleeding and was probably gonna need some bandages soon, if not stitches. He was pretty sure-well. He _hoped_ he was gonna get by without stitches. “Yeah, they’re just flesh wounds. It’s not that deep. We’ll get them taken care of when we get back to the safe room,” he reassured. With what, he wasn’t sure yet-they really did need to find a first aid kit or something in this place. Eyeing Jack with a small frown, it still looked like he wasn’t all there yet. The haze of disorientation was taking an unsettling amount of time to clear. “Jack, we’ve been looking all over the place for you. What the hell are you _doing_ down here? Why were you asleep?”

“Uh. Runnin’,” Jack replied simply, voice still groggy. “Running and hiding. And then I leaned against the wall to rest and…”

Resting from running? Was that all? It wasn’t a very satisfying answer, didn’t quite explain why he looked so much paler all of a sudden. So shifting a bit, Mark suddenly reached out with the back of his hand to feel Jack’s forehead. For a split second, he could’ve sworn he saw the other man flinch but again-

When Mark held the hand in place for a second, Jack stared back at him curiously.

“What are you doin’?”

“Checking to make sure you don’t have a fever, you idiot,” Mark replied. “No offense, but you _really_ don’t look so good.”

“Speak for yourself,” Jack huffed, glancing back down at Mark. “You’re a fine one to talk. Red’s fine with hair, not so much from open wounds.”

Mark ignored the comment, finally lowering his hand after a moment. “Well, you’re a little bit warm, but I imagine that much is from overheating. It doesn’t quite feel like a fever though, so you’re in the clear there.”

“I could’ve told you that,” Jack mumbled. “But uh-thanks for verifying? I guess?”

Mark shook his head. “Don’t mention it,” he replied. His eyes drifting to the book under Jack’s arm, he asked, “What’s that?”

“Huh? Oh, this?” Jack held up the book. “Something I found in the library. I think a lot of it is just nonsense, but it’s actually got a few things in here that might help as far as puzzles and key locations and whatnot.” He shrugged. “It’s given me a bit of an edge in running from the monsters and stuff, so it seemed worth keeping around.”

“Really?” Mark shifted as Jack opened the book, flipping through some of the pages. The American frowned.

“Jack, a bunch of these pages are written in Italian.”

“Yeah? So?”

Mark gave Jack a sideways look. “Since when have you been able to understand Italian?”

Jack blinked, seeming to take a second for the question to click, then, “Oh! Well I don’t understand _those_ pages. Uh-there’s a bunch of pages written in English, too.” He flipped to another section of the book, pointing them out. “See? I’ve mostly just been going off those pages so far and hoping Felix might be able to help us a bit with translating any other parts.”

“Huh, well he might-” Mark mulled it over for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess it’s kept you alive this long. Might be worth taking a second look at after all.”

“See? I did good,” Jack replied, grinning. Closing the book, he raked a hand back through his hair and looked around. “Well, uh, I guess we should head back up to the safe room. _That_ -” He gestured to Mark’s wounds. “Needs to be taken care of ASAP. No way are you surviving fuckin’ monsters only to be killed by blood loss or infection.”

Mark grinned tiredly in return. “Okay, okay. That’s fair,” he replied. Hopefully Cry was gonna be back in the safe room by now, too; at least he knew where to return to. If not…

Well. They would cross that bridge when they came to it.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So more weird things are happening! And Jack is back! What does this mean for everyone? Uh-well, you're gonna have to wait and find out, 'cause I'm not saying here. Chapter's a little bit longer than I originally intended, but I think it covers all I wanted to for this one, so we'll roll with it. But in the meantime, really appreciate the support; it goes a long way with helping me write and post this! And glad to see I'm stirring people's imaginations. Keep on guessing-it'll be interesting to see who calls it! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	14. Chapter 13

“Are you _sure_ you’re gonna be able to make it all the way to the safe room? It’s through all this bullshit and up on the second floor,” Mark questioned as they walked, giving Jack another concerned look.

“Well, I mean, I could use some coffee, but yeah! I’ll be fine!” Jack replied, casting him a reassuring smile.

Mark eyed him, not totally convinced but shrugging, a slight wince coming from the gesture. “If you say so.”

“Yeah! I mean-Jesus, look at yourself. You’re the one that needs to be looked after, if either of us.” Jack shook his head. “Bleeding all over the place. Can’t leave you guys alone for a fuckin’ minute-”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I suck at real-life horror games,” Mark replied, rolling his eyes. In spite of himself, he couldn’t help but crack a small grin. “At least I don’t take spontaneous naps in corners like a con-goer without a hotel.”

“Hey, not my fault! I honestly thought that monster outside the door would never leave!” Jack whined. But then he burst into a chuckle. “Man, we _both_ kinda suck, don’t we?”

“Well I wouldn’t say you’re wrong about that,” Mark agreed, grinning. Many of his questions were beginning to fall away, his previous suspicions starting to feel almost silly. He still felt like there was something super weird going on and like Jack wasn’t telling him everything. Things still weren’t adding up all the way. But for now, he’d only press if the situation called for it. They had more important things to worry about, after all, such as getting to the safe room and finding Cry.

“I’m glad,” Jack suddenly spoke up, cutting through Mark’s thoughts. The American looked over at him curiously. Kind of a weird thing for anyone to be saying in this situation.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Jack nodded, relief lifting worn features a tiny bit. “Everybody’s still alive. Regardless of everything that’s been going on, I think we’re doing fairly well so far.”

“I-” Mark closed his mouth as he thought for a moment on their experiences up to that point. Right from the very start, more than one of them had come so close to being caught by those monsters. There were so many near-misses-but they’d actually managed to scratch by almost every time. Even if at times it seemed bizarre and didn’t make any real sense-but then again, hey, if it worked, he wasn’t complaining. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Who would’ve known that gaming and stuff would prep a person decently enough to survive a real-life horror movie?”

“Horror game,” Jack corrected automatically. At Mark’s strange look, he added, “Well, it’s just like what you said. We’re gamers, so it’s a horror game.”

“Game, horror game, fine,” Mark agreed, rolling his eyes as they headed back into the adjacent room he’d just left, making their way back to the dojo. “So horror game experience and a whole lotta lucky breaks.”

“Maybe?” Jack shrugged. “So what all _has_ happened with everyone else? I’m actually a little shocked I haven’t bumped into any of them recently.”

“Well…” As the two of them headed upstairs, Mark launched into an recap as to what all had happened up to that point-minus some of the details, such as the visions Cry had been having and that he was currently missing. His top priority at the moment was getting Jack to the others; he didn’t want to risk the Irishman running off trying to find Cry. And anyway, the conversation about the visions could be saved for another point in time. Jack listened intently, nodding every now and then. The fact that he didn’t seem too surprised that Team Edge and Ken had arrived caught Mark a bit off guard, but the former explained that ‘they were on their way; they were bound to show up here sooner or later’.

Fair enough, he supposed.

It took a bit before they finally managed to reach the safe room-as much as Mark was trying to just brush it off, there was still a noticeable limp due to the gash on his leg. But when they finally reached the door, Mark gave it a couple quick knocks and waited.

Silence.

He frowned, tried again. “Uh-hello?” he called through the door. “It’s Mark.”

A distant muffled response came from the other side, too muffled for them to really make out. The two men exchanged concerned looks, Mark grasping the knob and giving it a twist. Nothing, the door was locked.

“Ah, shit,” Mark grumbled.

“Hold on, I might actually have a key to this room,” Jack volunteered, searching his pockets. “Found a couple in the other rooms...here…” Producing a couple keys, he offered, “Try one of these.”

Mark took one of the keys, tried it. Nothing. Second key, there was a ‘click’ from the lock, allowing him to withdraw the key and pull the door open.

Inside was…

No one.

No one conscious, anyway.

“Felix?” Mark called as he stepped inside the room, glancing over at Tyler and Ethan and noting with relief that they still seemed okay. Relatively speaking, at least.

The door to the armoire opened a bit more to show Felix watching and breathing out a sigh of relief at the sight of Mark. When he noticed Jack behind him, his features matched his sigh.

“Fucking _finally_. Remind me to never go after a leprechaun; you guys are a serious pain to find,” he snarked as Jack closed the door behind them, but the concern and relief was still detectable in his voice. Jack smiled a bit at this, shifting a little.

“That’s why you’re supposed to follow _rainbows_. But good to see you too, Felix,” he greeted.

“Felix, why is it just you, Tyler and Ethan in here?” Mark asked, frowning with confusion and worry. “Where are all the others?”

“Matthias and Ken left to set the camera outside after making an update. They didn’t get back fast enough so Bryan and Joey went off to go look for them-” Felix fell short, frowning at the pair. “Hold on a second, where’s Cry? And-Jesus, Mark, are _you_ okay?”

“That is a good question,” Jack noted, turning to Mark. There was a spark of something in his eyes, it was something hidden, Mark just couldn’t put his finger on it- “Both of them are.”

The American looked a little uncomfortable now though as he replied, “Cry and I had a run-in with the monster close to the dojo. He took off to try and lure it away. I’ll live, but...”

“Fuck,” Jack muttered, and for just a second his expression was stormy. But then he shook his head. “Alright, Mark, you need to patch yourself up. Felix, if you could maybe-help him with that or something, in whatever way you can manage-”

“Woah, woah, woah, hold on Jack,” Mark cut in. “You are _not_ going back out there, especially not alone. We’ve been looking all over the place for you. I _just_ found you, not to mention you’re not exactly in top shape either-”

“I’m fine, I was just exhausted!” Jack argued. “I rested; I’m fine now!”

“As much as I hate to say it, if we all split up now, we’re right back where we started,” Felix pointed out. “Everyone knows where the safe room is now, so they should all make it back okay-”

“Yeah, well tell that to Bryan and Joey,” Jack countered. Looking back and forth between the two, he added with an edge of exasperation, “C’mon, guys, I’ll be fine! I’ll round everyone else back up, get them all back here. Then we can figure out a plan for getting out of here.” Making a face, he added, “I hate sitting around on me arse all day doing nothin’. At least this way is somewhat proactive.”

“This way is a horror movie trope that we keep on repeating,” Mark pointed out firmly. Seeing a look flash through the Irishman’s eyes that was downright mutinous about threw him off balance. Things were just about normal between them up until a few minutes ago, but all of a sudden the two of them couldn’t feel any more distant. _What the hell wasn’t Jack telling him?_

He couldn’t keep beating around the bush anymore, and his tense, frazzled state from the situation at hand didn’t help stop the irritation beginning to course through his veins. So deciding to press on, he continued, “Why the hell are you so anxious to get away from the rest of us anyway? There’s _killer monsters_ running loose outside and all you can think about is going back out there-”

But a sharp couple knocks cut his words short, drawing all eyes to the door. Jack-who had started to tense at Mark’s words-suddenly cleared his throat.

“Uhm-I think someone should get that.”

Mark shot him a look as he headed over to the door. “We’re not done.”

“Mark-” But words fell away as Jack shook his head and turned away, pacing away from him while raking hands back through his hair and an agitated sigh escaping his lips. Mark caught the Irishman mumble something from across the room, he wasn’t sure if he heard right, but-

_“Forget it, it probably doesn’t matter anymore anyway.”_

Mark cast a final glance toward Jack, exchanging a worried look with Felix before turning his attention back to the door and unlocking it. As he peeked out, he let out a relieved sigh, pulling it open to let in Cry, Matthias and Ken.

“Well, that’s three out of five, at least,” Felix said.

But Matthias paused in the doorway, frowning and looking around. “Where’s Joey and Bryan?” he asked, an edge of anxiety to his voice.

“We were actually trying to figure that out just now,” Mark replied.

Matthias looked over at Felix. “Felix?”

“He said you were taking too long and got worried,” Felix explained. “I’m not exactly in any shape to stop him, so Bryan decided to tag along to provide backup.”

Matthias shook his head, moving to head back out. “I need to go find them. Now.”

“Hey, hold on a second-” Mark began, reaching out to lightly grab his shoulder and stop him. Come to think of it, he actually did look pretty pale. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“We broke a clock and Matthias had one of those fake memories,” Cry explained.

“Yeah?” Felix pressed. “We’ve all been getting those-”

“It was one of me finding them dead,” Matthias cut in.

The others stared in grim silence before Mark finally looked around at everyone. “Alright, yeah, I guess we probably should go find Joey and Bryan.”

“We should also try and see about getting a first aid kit, too,” Cry pointed out, eyeing Mark’s injuries.

“Yeah-I think there was actually one downstairs in the lounge,” a voice piped up from the corner, causing all heads to turn. Tyler blinked a few times to get his eyes to focus as he sat up from his spot on the floor, frowning when he noticed all the people in the room. “Matthias? Cry? Ken?” His eyes drifted over to the Irishman standing towards the back. “Oh-hey, you guys found Jack.” Before anyone else could say anything, he twisted to look up at Ethan on the bed next to him, suddenly looking a little pale as he remembered what happened. “How’s Ethan?”

“Ethan’s fine,” Mark reassured, hurrying over to the two. “Not even a scratch on him-”

“What? No. That’s impossible-” Tyler’s frown deepened, shifting his position to get a better look at Ethan. “I mean, I’m relieved that he’s okay, but-” He shook his head. “That monster gouged his shoulder. I _saw_ it happen, he was bleeding out-”

Jack shook his head. “I’m pretty sure everyone here believes you-” He looked around at everyone to ensure he had their backing before he continued. “But I think that’s more so something for us all to focus on later. We have two people missing and another person with disturbing, uh, visions about them. I’d suggest we figure out the weird stuff once everyone’s back together, before any of that disturbing stuff comes true.”

Ken frowned. “Jack’s probably right. Alright-two of us can go downstairs and get the first aid kit. Two of us can go look for Joey and Bryan. Felix, Mark, Tyler? You guys stay here with Ethan-”

“What? No-” Mark started to argue, to which Ken shook his head.

Cry glanced over at Ken, then looked back at Mark, deciding to provide the former with some backup as he leaned the katana against the wall-he wasn’t sure anyone in the room was going to use it all that well, but Tyler seemed to be in pretty decent shape now. He didn’t want to just leave the injured defenseless, and besides, he had an idea for adding something else to their arsenal. “Mark, you’re injured. If either of those monsters show up, you’re not gonna be able to run from them very well.”

“But-”

“Don’t worry. I’ll go with them,” Jack volunteered, causing Mark to give him a look.

“Hell no. Jack-”

“ _Mark_. I’m in way better shape than you right now-”

“You’re the one who was pass-”

“I’m _fine_ now. Have a little bit of faith in me, won’t ye?” Jack interjected, giving him a sharp, stubborn look. “We’ll get the kit and the others and be back before ye even notice we’re gone.”

Mark was silent with surprise as Jack pushed past the others and headed out into the hallway. Cry glanced over at the American, awkward, but quickly moved to follow Jack out. Considering all that’d been going on as of late, considering their suspicions and concerns, and now the odd behavior from the green-haired man-

Honestly, with the way things were right now, he didn’t think it’d be right having Ken or Matthias being Jack’s partner. And maybe he wasn’t _completely_ up to date on what was going on with Jack, but maybe Mark could at least take some solace in the fact that Jack was going to be traveling with someone who already knew to keep an eye on him.

“We’ll be back soon,” he assured as Matthias closed the door behind them. Turning to him and Ken, he added, “Alright, Jack and I are gonna head downstairs to grab the first aid kit. We’ll leave you guys to searching for Joey and Bryan. Keep an eye out for the monsters, both of them, because we’re pretty sure there’s _at least_ two running around now. The one that was chasing me earlier burst out of the _floor_ for crying out loud, so…”

“Yeah, we noticed,” Ken assured. “That and it also makes noise when it shows up. And the other one?”

“It’s big. Kinda bulky and nowhere near as fast as the other one but still a lot faster than it looks and super strong,” Jack replied, shifting the book in his arms a bit. “Sharp teeth, sharp claws. You’ll probably hear its footsteps coming before you see it, so just keep your ears open.” He paused, then added quietly, “And just...overall, be careful.”

“Don’t worry, we will,” Ken replied. “At least we’re technically still armed-” Eyeing the two, he added, “Which I just realized, you’re not?”

“I’m actually gonna see about grabbing a knife from the kitchen while we’re down there,” Cry assured. Glancing over at Jack, he added, “We probably both can.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a pretty decent idea,” Jack agreed with a nod. “Better that than nothing.” He sucked in a deep breath, looking from one person to the next. “Alright, well-best of luck to everyone, and hopefully we’ll all be meeting up back here soon.”

“Yeah, be careful,” Matthias agreed with a nod as they all headed down the hall, listening to the silence around them. Once they hit the top of the stairs though, the group split, heading downstairs. As Jack and Cry hit the first floor, they turned left to head down the corridor, listening to the thunder rumble and the rain start pouring outside.

“Huh,” Cry remarked softly. “With all the chaos going on in here, I totally forgot about the storm outside.” He shook his head. “Hopefully we won’t lose power in this place. We should probably keep an eye out for some flashlights or something, just in case.”

“Yeah. Turn it into a real fuckin’ horror game,” Jack replied with a mild but humorless chuckle.

Cry gave Jack a sideways look, curious. In spite of Jack’s volunteering, he looked...almost in worse shape than he’d previously seen him. Paler, more worn. Definitely tired, but then again, who among them _wasn’t?_ “I guess. We already have a lighter, after all-” Pursing his lips for a second, he then asked, “Where _have_ you been all this time? We’ve been-”

“Looking all over for me, I know,” Jack finished. He reached up to scratch the back of his neck, eyes on the floor in front of them. “Yeah, I already got lectured by Mark.”

Cry shrugged at this. “He’s just worried, man. We all are. I mean, you just up and disappeared for awhile-if _any_ of us did that, it’d be the same story. In a house like this, we wouldn’t know if the monster got you until it was _way_ too late.”

Jack was quiet for a bit as they reached the door to the kitchen/lounge area, partly from being lost in thought, partly from being cautious as they entered into the next room. All seemed relatively empty and untouched though, and the two slipped into the room without much incident. Jack softly shut the door behind him, twisting the lock as Cry headed into the kitchen and started checking the drawers. “Let’s see…” he murmured to himself. But then he raised his voice a bit again to address Jack. “But yeah, if you’ve got some kind of super awesome hiding spot or something-”

Jack barked out a laugh, one that was maybe a bit harsher than intended. When it drew a glance back from the masked man, Jack shook his head. “No. No hiding spots or anything, just-just a lot of running.”

Cry frowned slightly from behind the mask but continued to root around in the drawers until he finally came across one for silverware. “Ah, here we go.” Pulling a rather large knife from the drawer, he held it up to show the Irishman. Jack shifted a bit.

“Doesn’t really give you so much of an advantage with range,” he remarked, to which Cry shrugged.

“Yeah, but I mean, it’s still better than nothing, right?”

“I guess,” Jack replied, although his voice was still lined with doubt. “I mean, so long as overconfidence isn’t what replaces ‘nothing’.”

Cry gave him another sideways look, studying the Irishman who’d turned his back on him in order to rummage through the stuff in the corner, searching for the first aid kit. He remained silent for a while, simply observing, before finally speaking up again. “Jack, are you sure you’re alright?”

Jack kept his back to him as he continued to rummage. “Why does everybody keep asking me that? I already told you, I’m fine,” he replied shortly.

“Well, I mean, it just sounded like Mark was starting to say something about you being...what? Passed out or something?” Cry pressed.

“Oh, well I mean-yeah, he did,” Jack confessed, this time sounding a bit sheepish. “It was just kind of a stupid thing. I guess I kinda overexerted myself in running from the monster earlier. And to be honest, I’m already kinda running on fumes due to cramming for videos before getting here.” He shook his head. “But I mean, I locked the door. I really just meant to stop and rest for a few minutes.”

Cry nodded. This all seemed fairly reasonable-although personally he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to just conk out like that after being chased by a monster, locked door or not. Although something else was definitely still bothering him-well. A _few_ things were bothering him, actually, but he wanted to try and approach all these things as tactfully as possible. The vibe he was getting off the Irishman was...oddly standoffish, and considering that it was Jack-

“So aside from that, you’re okay?” He asked as he began searching for the clock in the room, checking each of the cabinets and drawers. At the almost exasperated look Jack gave him over the shoulder, he added, “Hey, you were being chased by _monsters_ all night and in four out of ten cases so far, that seems to end up in pretty serious injury. It’s a valid question!”

“Tyler and Ethan seemed alright,” Jack pointed out.

“Yeah, they seem alright _now_ -” Cry shook his head. “We don’t really know what’s going on there, but-”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m alright. Just like the last time we were wandering this place, I’m just a bit overheated and exhausted.” Jack paused, now turning fully to eye him with a perceptive frown. “Don’t you believe me?”

Cry hesitated for a moment, thinking his answer over before looking back at him and lowering his hands from the cabinet he was searching through. “No, I do, it’s just-” He sucked in a breath, taking a second to gather his thoughts and figure out how best to answer this. “I guess it’s just one of the visions I had-”

“What, you mean like those fake memories?”

Cry’s eyebrows raised, taken by surprise. “Uh-yeah. So you already know about them?”

“I might’ve broken one or two of the clocks in this place on accident,” Jack replied. “And yeah, I got ‘memories’ from them. But they weren’t real memories.”

“And that doesn’t bother you at all?”

Jack pursed his lips and looked away, seeming to think for a moment before replying, “I think it’s dangerous for us to start believing that they might be real.” Looking back at Cry, he continued, “It’s bad enough that we’re stuck in this situation to begin with. When we start letting hallucinations screw with our perception of what’s real or not, then we’re _really_ fucked.” Pausing to turn away from him and pull out a tiny first aid kit buried underneath everything, he continued, “I don’t think we should go around breaking anymore clocks. Especially if you’re starting to believe the visions you’re getting from them.”

“I’m not, they’re just-they’re a little bit jarring, you know?” Cry defended. “I mean, when you think you see someone hurt or dead, even when the vision’s false, it’s only natural to wanna make sure that person’s okay. Right?”

“And you saw me hurt,” Jack concluded softly, a frown still on his features. “Was that-was that all you saw?”

“‘All I saw’?” Cry repeated, incredulous. “Because that wasn’t alarming enough?” But remembering the light around his fingertips, the blood on his hand, the look on the others’ faces and his intent on going to Jack and-

And _what?_

_What in that vision was he trying to do?_

“I mean- _yes_ ,” Cry lied. “You were hurt and everyone was freaking out about it. I _know_ it isn’t something that’s happened in real life, I mean-you obviously don’t have some gaping hole in your stomach and a bleeding head wound. But it was still enough to get me worried-” But then he made a face behind the mask, turning his attention back to rummaging through the cabinets. “Anyway. I’m still gonna go around breaking clocks regardless. Because despite the crazy-ass visions they keep giving us, at least it’s fixing the issue of everyone’s phones not syncing up. Half the reason we can’t seem to regroup, it feels like, is because nobody can seem to grasp a decent sense of _time_ in this place.”

“Ye all are too reliant on yer phones,” Jack muttered, shaking his head and heading over. “I wonder if watches would be a bit more reliable in a place like this.”

“I’m sure some of the others actually have watches; we can maybe ask about it once we regroup,” Cry replied. Pulling a clock from the drawer, he held it up. “But in the meantime, this is getting smashed.”

Jack frowned and took a step toward him, but too late-the clock was on the ground and getting a heel taken to it-

 _His head ached, his eyes puffy with the damp, rough feeling of trails down his face. It felt exposed to the cool air, there was no mask. His throat was raw as if he’d been crying-he probably was, but_ why _? He lingered by the wall, staring out through the bars of his cell-_

_He was alone in here._

_Alone, except for the person on the other side._

_Jack._

_Jack and-god-wait-_

_Something was wrong._

_What was going on with his_ face _?_

_It looked normal but something was wrong with it, something beyond the toothy sadistic grin that was slowly beginning to subside. No, something was seriously off, why couldn’t he put his finger on it-_

_Jack was talking, saying something-_

_But it was so difficult to concentrate or focus on much of anything. Soon after gaining awareness of his surroundings, a wave crashed into him and threatened to pull him under, to drown him._

_Frustration._

_Hopelessness._

_Guilt._

_Self-loathing._

_Fearbetrayallonelinessmistrust-_

_“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still want you to play the game,” Jack’s voice said, suddenly cutting through everything and managing to draw a bit of his attention. Something was fucked up about his voice, too, now that he thought about it, but he just-god, he couldn’t focus enough-_

_“But that doesn’t mean I can’t take pleasure in reminding you of your own failures, just to watch you squirm.” Stepping back from the bars, Jack reached into his jacket pocket with his left hand-and with a sickening feeling, Cry suddenly realized he couldn’t feel his right hand. The sensation of pins and needles and then a borderline static sensation that phased in and out of not feeling anything there at all, and he certainly couldn’t move it._

_He mentally cringed, suddenly realizing as the ache in his head built up to a legitimate pain that it wasn’t just something of the vision, it was something real, something that was actually happening. The feeling of static seemed to be rising up in his head, he realized he couldn’t focus enough on the content of whatever it was Jack was saying, but with each word uttered his heart seemed to sink deeper and deeper into despair-_

_My fault._

_All of this is my fault._

_They don’t deserve this, but maybe I do._

_If only I hadn’t-_

_Jack’s voice pulled him to a brief flicker more of awareness, just a single statement that was saturated in cheerful malice._

_“I’ll be looking forward to the next time I see you in a cage.”_

_He glanced down at the key he suddenly realized was in his hand, then over at the opened door of the cell, seeing that Jack was suddenly gone._

_The silence that followed was almost deafening. Deafening until it was suddenly ripped through by a cross between a choked sob and a frustrated scream-_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Can't believe I managed to get this chapter up in the midst of convention-going, but here we are~ But on that note, gonna keep things short for now because I need sleep. Thanks so much for all the support so far, it means so much in the way of encouragement for writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	15. Chapter 14

“Cry!”

Cry jerked when a hand suddenly clamped down on his shoulder, wide eyes staring into the worried face of Jack as they came back into focus with reality. His breathing was heavy, his head _hurt_ ; what the _fuck_ was that all about? All the while Jack continued to stare at him with wide, worried blue eyes, keenly observing him with what looked like a rising anxiety. “Are you alright?”

“I…” Cry swallowed hard, his throat feeling tight from thoughts and emotions he didn’t even know the reason for. Taking a shaky breath in, he simply nodded in silence, not quite trusting his voice just yet.

Jack looked unconvinced, a look of concern on his face. No, it was more than just concern, but he couldn’t put his finger on it just yet. Worry? Well, obviously. Doubt, maybe? Understandable, his bullshit reassurances were as easy to see through as glass. Fear?

Fear about _what? His current state?_

“What did you see?” Jack asked softly, the grip on Cry’s shoulder slowly loosening as his hand slipped away. He shifted, looking him over, then back up at where the eyeholes of the mask were. “I can’t even see your face and I can tell you’re pretty shaken by whatever it was.”

Cry opened his mouth to reply, closed it again, tried to think on what exactly he should say. ‘ _Hey, Jack, I just saw you taunting me around a cell and borderline threatening to lock me up from the sound of it and it’s not even the first vision I’ve had like that?_ ’ _‘Hey Jack, is there any particular reason it looked like I might’ve been killing you a couple visions back and felt justified in doing-well-whatever it was?’_ ‘ _Hey Jack, quick question, have you lost your damn mind and become evil and now you’re secretly out to hurt and/or kill all of us?’_

He _wanted_ to give Jack the benefit of the doubt.

He _really_ did. They’d all agreed that these visions weren’t even real anyway, just hallucinations induced to confuse all of them, maybe even turn each other against one another.

But…

But this one felt different somehow.

And the emotions and thoughts that came with it, how could those even be fake when he himself didn’t even know the actual _reason_ behind them?

Not to mention, why was _Jack_ the only real suspicious one in these visions? Aside from...aside from himself, maybe-

“I just-” He shook his head, thankful for the mask as he found himself unable to look the other in the eyes. When would it be the right time to confront him about all of this? If he was...if he’d actually gone evil as shit and this whole friendly demeanor was all just an act (it couldn’t be; why _would_ it be?), one on one probably wasn’t the answer. He’d probably be able to handle himself if worst came to worst and it was between him and Jack, but on the off-chance that vision _was_ somehow true, he’d landed himself in that cell _somehow_ , after all. So if he decided to confront Jack on this seriously, probably better off having at least one other person with him.

For safety’s sake.

“The vision itself wasn’t anything really substantial, to be honest,” he confessed. And that was actually kinda true, there really wasn’t much to the vision. Just some talking, being locked up in a cell, his _freaking hand going temporarily numb and then what was even_ that _all about?_

“I think it was actually more of a...I dunno.” He shifted uncomfortably, nudging the remains of the clock away with his foot and over by the counter, absently wanting to ensure it was out of the way so no one would trip over it in case they ran in here. “I guess I suddenly just got bowled over by emotions. And it made my head kinda hurt.” He winced, although the pain was already starting to ebb away. Slowly, but thankfully at enough of a gradual rate for him to notice. “But really, I think it was more so just talking and someone tossing me a key.” Truth without details. Possibly the safest call to make in this situation. “What was your memory or vision or whatever? What did you see?”

This time it was Jack’s turn to shift uncomfortably, twisting around to look back at the door and silent for a few seconds before looking back at him. “Just...me and Mark. Talking-” He let it hang there as he sucked in a deep breath and shook his head. “Probably from when we first got here in some false memory. Really nothing important.”

And suddenly the walls were up again, as impenetrable as ever.

Once again, even though they were were in the same country, in the same _room_ , only a couple feet away from each other, they couldn’t feel further apart.

Jack held up the first aid kit somewhat awkwardly, the book he’d been seen with earlier tucked under his other arm. Shuffling a little as he turned away to head out the door, he reached up with the back of his hand to rub an unseen spot on his face. “C’mon, we need to get this upstairs to Mark and the others.”

“Uh-” Cry glanced back down at the remains of the clock, then over at the counter to grab his knife. So wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn’t even think to ask if Jack was going to pick up a weapon of his own. Or at this point, perhaps a more selfish part of himself didn’t actually _want_ him to, just in case the Irishman really was dangerous. “Yeah.”

As he moved to follow, he felt a dampness beneath his nose and absently reached up under the mask to swipe it away with his fingertips with a tiny sniffle.

Pulling his hand away, he silently noted his fingertips were glistening with a couple dark drops of fresh blood.

 

* * *

 

“I can’t _believe_ they would do this,” Matthias remarked as they went from room to room to peek into, investigate, and move on. “They _know_ better! Or at least they _should_ know better.”

“Joey _did_ warn he’d come looking for you if we took too long,” Ken pointed out, to which Matthias’s frown deepened.

“A few minutes isn’t too long,” he countered.

“It was a bit longer than a few minutes,” Ken reminded. At the look Matthias gave him, Ken’s expression softened to a more sympathetic one. “On the bright side, we _did_ manage to save Cry. And c’mon, they can handle themselves. I’ve seen you guys with challenges; they’re pretty decent runners.”

“Yeah, just-” Matthias frowned and shook his head, obviously shaken. “I can’t shake off that vision I got from the clock. Seeing them dead- If I were to come across that in real life-”

Ken watched him as a tense silence befell them.

“I honestly don’t know what I’d do. I...I don’t think I’d-”

Ken suppressed a sigh, a look of concern on his face. He couldn’t make any actual promises or anything; the situation was all-around dangerous. It was a helpless sensation and he hated it, but what else could they do except try to get through it?

“I get it, but I’m sure they’re gonna be fine,” he finally said firmly, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t be eating those words later. Staying positive wasn’t his greatest strength-that was something to be left to certain others, but he’d give it his best shot in the meantime. “Matt-let’s be real here, with all the challenges you guys do on your channel on a regular basis, I’m almost inclined to say that you guys are going to have an _advantage_ in getting away from the monster, maybe even in fighting back. If anyone stands a chance in this place, it’s probably the three of you. Not to say that the rest of us ain’t capable or anything, of course, just...” He shrugged. “Anyway, we have to remain under the assumption that those clocks are trying to confuse us and give us the run-around. It’s making us see things that aren’t _real_ , and they’re probably doing their job when they cause us to panic and get reckless.”

“I guess…” Matthias replied, and though he didn’t sound fully convinced, he seemed a couple fractions less tense with his response. Glancing over at Ken, he added, “Thanks.”

“Hey, don’t mention it,” Ken replied. “I want everyone getting out of here alive, and I imagine that’s gonna require all of us keeping our heads.”

“You’re probably right, yeah.” Matthias nodded, a faint smile crossing his features. “They’re going to be fine. They’re going to be okay.”

The pair turned into the former safe room, stepping inside to look around for any sign of the missing duo. As they did, a crash of thunder rattled the house, drawing Ken’s attention to the window as he crossed the room to peek out the barred-up window. “Dang, it’s really coming down out there,” he noted, even if the view of the outdoors in the dark was minimal. The heavy sound of the rain coming down was enough to judge. Although, in hindsight, he almost _wished_ he didn’t look out the window at all-the sight of the bars was a grim reminder of the prison this house really was.

As Matthias headed over to join him and took note of the bars, he frowned. It was something he hadn’t really noticed when entering this place and now he wished he did. “How are we ever gonna get out of this place?” he murmured softly.

Ken shrugged. “Find the key,” he replied. “Or survive until tomorrow night, I guess. People are gonna notice when there’s no livestream, no tweets, no videos-and that’s not even taking into account the people we know personally…”

Matthias felt a sense of hope and relief flare up inside him. Of course, there were downsides to being kept track of by a large community all the time, just as there were downsides to any job. But the concern and notice of so many people could be a blessing at times. “Hey-yeah, you’re right.” Looking over at Ken, he continued, “Somebody’s going to notice, and even then, if they can’t send someone out here, Emma and PJ are supposed to be meeting us here sometime tomorrow, right? And the rest of the crew? So long as we can all regroup and find a safe place to lay low…”

“Then we might all make it out of here okay,” Ken replied, a grin flickering across his own face. The realization, the logic of things fueled an infectious hope. A decent plan was now officially a thing. If they could find the key during their searching for each other, all the better, but if not, all they had to do was make it through the night and maybe part of the day.

So long as they could endure some of the injuries they accumulated already, so long as they managed to find those they were missing still alive, so long as they managed to find a resilient enough place to hide out and bunker down, they might all make it out of this place alive.

“You know-maybe we should turn this into the new safe room,” Ken remarked as he looked around. “Or at least use one of the rooms on this side of the house. With the window looking out to the front of the building, we could keep an eye out for anyone pulling up without risking standing out in the open next to the front door.”

“Makes sense,” Matthias agreed, looking around the room and starting to head out when he paused, something catching his eye. “Hang on a second-” He frowned, heading over to the bookcase and pushing a few books aside. “What’s this-?”

Ken followed him over, noting the little red light that drew Matthias to that spot in the first place. He watched as the blond pulled a small camcorder off the shelf, angling around to get a look at the screen as it was fiddled with. “Oh, huh, it’s on,” he noted, frowning a bit. “Wonder how the hell it got here. Or who put it here, more like it-” He pointed out the little icon in the corner, adding, “And it looks like the battery’s about to die.”

“Yeah,” Matthias muttered, curiosity driving him to the section of already-recorded videos. There looked to be a few from a couple days ago, random snippets from around Brighton and London. Hitting play, Felix and Marzia’s faces suddenly appeared on the screen-

_“Hey bros, so we’re at the airport and we just picked up a green potato. Most of Mark’s crew is getting some sight-seeing in-”_

_“Hi!” Marzia jumped in, grinning with a wave from the passenger’s seat of Felix’s car. The greeting was soon joined by a deeper voice, to which the camera swiveled to show Mark also waving at the camera as he and Jack got into the backseat of the car._

_“Top of the mornin’-!” Jack shouted, upping the screech in his voice to an obnoxious level and busting out laughing when he got the desired result of Felix’s cringe in the rearview mirror._

_“Get out. You’re walking,” Felix commanded in playful deadpan, twisting around in his seat to look back at the Irishman._

_“How the hell did_ you _get here before I did anyway?” Jack asked Mark, purposefully ignoring the driver with a cheerful grin and a goofy chuckle._

_“I left sooner than you did, you dolt,” Mark replied, grinning. “Unlike you, I-”_

“So this is Felix’s-” Matthias frowned, twisting around to look at the door. “But-hold on a second, Felix’s camera is out in the hall-”

“Maybe they brought in a spare with the livestream equipment?” Ken suggested with a shrug. “Let’s see what the latest video is.”

Matthias expertly flitted over to the last video clip, frowning a bit when he hit play. Just this room. Nothing seemed to be going on in it, nothing was happening-why was this even a thing? “Um-I’m just gonna-here. Fast-forward,” he said, hitting the fast-forward button.

Nothing, nothing, whole lot of nothing. Ken craned his neck to peer at the video a bit more closely.

“Is anything going to happen?” he wondered. Seconds after the words left his mouth, the monotony was suddenly broken by the sound of creaking footsteps close to the camera. There was a flicker of movement over by the edge, part of a body, followed by whispered voices.

Bryan and J-Fred’s voices.

Matthias frowned, peering closer at the screen.

_“I don’t think it saw us-”_

_“Shut the door, shut the door-!” J-Fred urged, his whispered voice fading a bit with increasing distance from the camera. His words were soon followed by a couple thuds, then a sudden crash. “BRYAN!”_

_J-Fred suddenly backed across the screen, shaking his head as the sturdy, long-necked monster followed him across the room. “No-no-no-no-no-”_

_“Shit-SHIT!” A pause, followed by, “JOEY! RUN!” Bryan’s voice suddenly shouted off-screen, something flying across the screen and protruding from the monster’s back. The monster’s head whipped around, another something suddenly flying at it to embed itself into its stomach. J-Fred hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second before he moved to bolt past the monster._

_Not fast enough, the monster suddenly reached out to grab his head, flinging him back out in front of itself with enough force to pull his feet off the floor. Its other hand suddenly grasped his shoulder, giving his body a sharp twist so his neck turned at an unnatural angle, which was followed by an audible ‘crunch’._

_“JOEY!”_

_The monster suddenly slammed J-Fred’s head down into the floor, another crunch sounding out before releasing the limp body and turning to face the speaker. It started quickly crossing the room, now clearly agitated as it made its way to Bryan off-camera. “Oh god-no-NO-!”_

_A scream echoed out, almost drowning out the sick sound of something ripping through flesh and bone and something clattering to the floor. Silence followed for a few seconds before Bryan was suddenly tossed on screen just a few feet away from J-Fred, limp with a large hole through his chest-_

Ken watched in a stunned silence, slightly sick as he saw the blood pouring from J-Fred’s head and Bryan’s chest. He nearly missed it when the camera suddenly slipped from shaking hands, managing to catch it just before gravity could shatter it against the floorboards. Looking over at Matthias, he could see that the other man was rigid with wide eyes, a sick look on his sheet-white face. Looking back down at the screen, all he could hear from the recording at this point was the sound of the monster giving a hiss-like sound and walking heavily out of the room.

Silence fell across the room like a suffocating blanket, the only sounds now being the rapid breathing of Matthias in his rising panic.

Ken cast a glance around the room, his brows furrowing in confused worry. He honestly didn’t know what to make of it. _Yeah_ , there was this video, but then there was also this room they just saw it happen in. There was no sign of blood, no bodies, no-

_How?_

Mouth dry from the shock of what they just saw, he began to speak, though in all honesty, he had no idea what to say. What could _anyone_ say in a situation like this?

“Matt-”

But his words were interrupted by the sudden sound of footsteps entering the room on the camera again, this time softer, this time more... _human_. Bringing the camera back up to look into the screen (personally; Matthias wasn’t even looking at this point and Ken really didn’t think he needed to be watching anything more at this point anyway), he saw nothing new, but from the footsteps he could tell that whoever just entered the room was getting closer, staying just out of view. Then a sudden pitched giggle and an accented whisper that sounded chillingly familiar, even worse being the words that were spoken.

_“Four down.”_

And the view on the screen dissolved into green static.

Silence befell them again as Ken stared at the screen for a few seconds more. The clip ending was what brought him out of his spell, slowly lowering the camera and looking back at Matthias. “Matthias...I don’t think this is real.”

At first he wasn’t sure Matthias even heard him, but then the blond turned to him, wide eyes bordering on the edge of frantic. “What?”

“I don’t-I don’t think it’s real, I mean look around us.” Ken motioned around the room before them. “The video was set in _this_ room, wasn’t it? So then where are they? Where’s…” He hesitated, not wanting to say ‘bodies’ or ‘blood’, as if acknowledging such a thing would somehow make it true. “Where’s _any_ sign of a skirmish? There wasn’t a fight here. A-and even if there was, who’d be cleaning it up? The monster? Or-” Felix _did_ say something about there potentially being another person in this house which was...which was creepy as all hell, he wasn’t gonna lie about that. But even if there was… “There wouldn’t even be any _time_ to clean anything like that up; Bryan and Joey haven’t been gone for very long.”

“So you’re saying this is somehow like the fake visions?” Matthias demanded, voice pitching a little bit in borderline hysteria. He looked back down at the camera, then shook his head. “This is a _video_ , Ken, this is real-”

“Not everything on camera is real-” Ken shook his head. “Just-Matt, something’s not adding up here.”

But Matthias was shaking his head firmly. “You don’t understand,” he said. “That fake vision I had, the one I had of me finding them dead? _That’s how they looked. That’s how they were killed._ ”

Ken’s mouth clamped shut for a moment as he silently mulled this over. Okay he...okay at this point he had nothing.

“We’re going to find them, Matt-” But the blond was already heading out of the room before he could finish what he was saying. Ken quickly turned off the camera and snapped the screen shut, rushing after Matthias. “Matt!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything is finally starting to fall into place. Maybe not quite within this chapter, but soon. I'd maybe give it just a few more. But yeah! Thanks for all the support, it really helps so much with writing and posting. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	16. Chapter 15

“Oh, hey, I hate to suggest this when this is just a quick retrieval sort of thing,” Jack suddenly spoke up, stopping by the library and eyeing the door. “But has the library been checked yet?”

“Checked? For clocks and stuff, you mean?” Cry asked, slowing to join the man in front of him. “Uh-” He frowned, thinking for a moment. “ _ I _ haven’t. I dunno if anyone else has, although-” Yeah, probably not. “Hm, yeah. I don’t think anyone else really has either.”

“We should probably get that sorted,” Jack noted, reaching for the door and twisting the knob to pull it open. “While we’re still down here.”

Cry frowned slightly as he followed the Irishman inside. “I-yeah, I guess,” he agreed with a small shrug. “I thought you were kind of opposed to breaking the clocks though?”

“Well I’m not exactly thrilled with the idea,” Jack admitted, scratching the back of his neck. He then sighed. “But...we’re either all in or we’re all out, I think. You guys already started going around breaking them and I feel like this isn’t something we can only do halfway without any sort of repercussions.” He paused, then added, “Or maybe we’ll somehow get an achievement from breaking all the clocks. I dunno.” He shrugged, heading deeper inside the library and beginning to check the shelves.

Cry eyed him, but then shook his head and shrugged as well, locking the door behind them and making his way forward. “Alright,” he relented, pausing at the table. Overcome with curiosity, he reached out, lightly pressing down on one of the open books to drag it over and get a better look. A frown crossed his face when he noticed all the text was in German.

“...Um…” he began quietly, flipping the book shut to look at the title.

He felt his heart skip a beat.

He’d never looked at this thing before. The only time he’d seen it was in that fake memory, but-

_ Ubertragung von Gesundheit _ .

“No…”

But any thoughts were stopped at that point. Stopped, because a sharp  _ crunch _ suddenly met his ears and everything around him changed-

_ His eyes were staring at a keypad, frustration and the edges of despair already starting to swirl through his mind. He wasn’t wearing a mask again, no edges of the eyeholes or anything, his vision was completely clear and his face exposed to the air. Hands were leaning against the wall in front of him, supporting him. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, barely even managed to stumble into this place at all. His heart was pounding, the sound of blood in his ears adding to the headache that was coming on. _

_ He could feel his nerves and mind starting to fray-he’d felt it start  _ **_long_ ** _ ago. He couldn’t keep going like this. _

_ But there were footsteps coming up behind him. Soft, light footsteps-it wasn’t any of the monsters. He knew who it was, and for some reason the sound made his stomach drop. The first thing he sensed was the presence of someone leaning just over his shoulder, whispering something into his ear with a familiar accented voice. _

_ But the voice was malicious. Taunting. This was...this was wrong- _

_ “You’re slowing.  _ **_I_ ** _ can see it.  _ **_You_ ** _ can see it-” _

_ The voice caused his breath to catch, his body instantly tensing with the sudden closeness of the owner. In reflex he whipped around to punch the offender, a flash of green catching his eye- _

The sound of a door slamming pulled him from the vision before he could even make sense of it, his true surroundings of a library coming back to him with a shock. He whipped toward the door, heart still racing, head aching with the feelings of frustration and despair and now fear still vibrating within him. The second thing that came to his awareness was the wet feeling under his nose again, to which he reached his hand up under his mask, brushing his upper lip and pulling his hand back. “Oh-holy  _ shit-! _ ” he exclaimed when he noticed there was definitely more than just a couple drops of blood on his hand now. He yanked the mask up, instinctively wiping his nose on the back of his hand as he looked around.

“Jack?” he called out, only for his voice to be met with silence. His eyes fell upon the first aid kit that’d been left on the table next to him and widened with realization.

“Wha- _ Jack! _ ” he exclaimed, reaching over to grab the first aid kit and race for the first aid kit. “Dammit!”

He should’ve known. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on the Irishman; of  _ course _ Jack had noticed how badly he tended to space whenever someone broke one of the clocks. Jack seemed so anxious to get away from the rest of the group earlier for reasons unknown; he should’ve been expecting something like this-

When he reached the door, he noticed it’d been locked. Well-at least Jack provided him the courtesy of spacing in a secure room. Or maybe it was just meant to be another obstacle.  _ Still- _

He twisted the lock and threw the door open, noticing with distaste that there was still blood trickling from his nose and into his mouth and-shit, this all just sucked all around. There was no time to tend to that, although instinct was nagging at him to do otherwise. Looking up and down the hall, he noted that he definitely didn’t see Jack. As long as the corridors were on each side, that probably meant he’d taken the door in the entrance hall or gone up the stairs. And dammit, he was  _ fast _ -

The sound of a creaking stair gave him his answer.

“Jack!” he called, immediately taking off in that direction to follow.

Why would he run from them?

Why would he do this at all?

What was that vision he had-

_ What the hell was going on-?! _

* * *

 

_ At first, all he could see was blue. _

_ Everything was swirling around him in a rapid blur, wind whipping around him. An intricate circle glowed beneath him and something was in his hands- _

_ And he wasn’t alone. _

_ Jack slowly pushed himself off the ground, looking around in confusion before his eyes fell upon him, mouth gaping for a moment in cold horror. But that horror soon melted away into despair as he looked down at himself in examination, then back up at him with eyes too broken for tears. _

_ He only said one thing, voice strained and cracking. Although things were roaring around him, the words were unmistakable. _

_ “What have you done?” _

_ He opened his mouth to reply, taken aback by the question. “I-” _

_ But whatever he was going to say, he couldn’t finish. _

_ Couldn’t, because hands suddenly grabbed him from behind, dragging him back into the swirling blue void. Whatever was in his hands slipped from his fingers, clattering to the floor. The last thing he saw, the last thing he heard was Jack reaching out for him, screaming. _

_ “ _ **_NO!_ ** _ ” _

Ethan suddenly sat up, gasping for breath and looking around. Immediately Tyler and Mark were at his bedside, overwhelming him with questions.

Was he alright? How was he feeling? What happened?

Ethan opened his mouth, grasping for any sort of reply he could give them, but closed it again when nothing came out. In truth, his mind was struggling to get all those answers for itself while simultaneously still reeling from the dream he was just pulled out of. Behind the two, he could hear Felix calling for them to back up and give him a bit of air, to which they reluctantly did-somewhat.

Ethan took a couple more minutes to regain his bearings, mind racing and thinking back to the last thing he could remember. His face suddenly paled as he reached up to grasp his shoulder, noticing with surprise a couple of things.

First off, his shirt was different, there was no blood-what-

And second, there was no pain in his shoulder at all. When he looked at the hand it belonged to, flexing his fingers, he found no difficulty in doing so whatsoever.

It was as if it never even happened, like it was all just a bad dream.  _ Did _ it even happen? The panic and questions from the others certainly seemed to say so.

Finally he managed to find his voice, although he wasn’t able to keep all of his disorientation out.

“I...I’m not really sure? I feel fine,” he finally managed in surprised honesty. Flexing his arm, he strained his memory for a second. “I remember there was the monster and then...Jack…” His mind was still a bit spacy, like he was trying to grasp everything from from a void before it floated away. Looking around at both, he then added, “ _ Shit _ , that’s right-is he okay?” Eyes drifting over to Tyler, he added, “Are  _ you _ okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, Jack’s okay, I’m...surprisingly okay,” Tyler replied, scratching the back of his head. “For a guy who lost consciousness after being thrown into a wall. You seem to be, too-do you have any idea what happened to that shoulder wound?”

Ethan looked back at his shoulder again before shaking his head slowly. “Not really,” he admitted. “It gets kinda fuzzy after I fell. Uh...again, I think I remember seeing Jack again, maybe?” He closed his eyes for a second as he tried to summon the already-hazy memory to the forefront of his mind. “I think he came back after leading the monster away. He was freaking, and then my shoulder started hurting like-” His eyes opened again and he shook his head. “And then everything went black. Next thing I know, I’m waking up here.”

His companions exchanged confused looks, but then Mark shook his head as he tried to make sense of everything.

“We found Jack in a couple rooms over; he’d locked himself in,” Mark explained. “And then we think we had a run-in with the monster that attacked you guys between those two places-”

At this, Ethan’s eyes drifted down to Mark’s front, widening a bit. “Geez- _ Mark-! _ ”

“Yeah, yeah, I got hurt too,” Mark admitted with a sigh. “But I don’t think it’s too deep; it’s stopped bleeding by now, at any rate.” He shook his head. “Anyway, it’s kind of old news at this point. Jack and Cry are grabbing a first aid kit from downstairs; they should be back soo-”

His voice was cut short as the door flew open, Cry stumbling in with mask on but somewhat askew. On his hand and sleeve was blood, and they could see it was still leaking somewhat from underneath the mask.

“I just lost Jack-!”

“Oh, well  _ fucking fuck _ ,  _ goddammit! _ ” Mark exclaimed in frustration.

Felix stared at Cry, eyes a bit wide as he took in the man’s appearance. “ _ The fuck happened? _ ” he demanded. “Cry, are you  _ bleeding-? _ ”

“Yeah, it’s just a fucking nosebleed-” Cry shook his head. “Not important. Jack broke a clock, I spaced, he took off-”

“And attacked you in the process?” Felix questioned.

“No-uh-no, the nosebleed thing was already happening on its own-look,  _ again _ , that’s not important. He took off on me, I don’t have any idea what the hell’s going through his head right now, but-”

“Fuck-” Felix exclaimed. He shook his head. “The second I’m up and moving again-”

“I’m gonna go find him-” Mark began, heading for the door.

“No, you’re gonna stay right here,  _ goddammit Mark, _ you’ve got a goddamn  _ limp _ -” Felix argued.

As Cry watched Mark pause to look back at Felix, he shut the door behind him and locked it, stepping forward. “We did manage to get our hands on the first aid kit, at least,” he mediated. “Mark, let’s  _ at least _ get you patched up before you walk back out there.” When the other didn’t move, he kept his voice as soft and calm as possible. “...Please?”

“C’mon…” Tyler instructed, moving to guide Mark over to the bed.

Ethan scooted a bit, swinging his legs over the side of the bed to make room and test out his mobility in the process. Turning his attention to Cry as Mark got situated next to him, he asked, “So you’re Cry, huh?”

“Uh-yeah. Yeah, that’s me,” Cry replied, passing the first aid kit to Tyler as he wiped the blood from his nose. “You’re Ethan?”

“Yep,” Ethan replied.

“Cool.” Any awkward silence following was quickly interrupted by Felix.

“Cry, you’re  _ sure _ you’re alright? You’re kinda bleeding everywhere-”

“Ugh- I uh-” Cry paused. “Yeah, okay. Tissue or something probably would be a decent idea.” Gratefully taking the gauze offered by Tyler, he shoved it up under the mask with a mumbled thanks, holding it in place as he walked off towards an unoccupied corner of the room with his head tilted upward and back turned to the others.

“What’s with the mask?” Ethan whispered to Mark, voice barely audible as he did.

“Don’t ask,” Mark replied, his own voice just as quiet.

Felix meanwhile shook his head with a sigh. “Alright. So now we’ve got Ken, Team Edge,  _ and _ Jack missing. That’s half of us and-dammit, guys. We were so fucking close to having everyone rounded up.”

“From what I’ve heard so far, this house seems pretty determined to keep us all split up,” Tyler noted.

“Easier to pick us all off if we’re all split off,” Ethan mumbled in agreement with a frown.

“The house  _ is _ a problem, but  _ we _ keep deciding to do it also,” Felix pointed out. “And then there’s Jack.”

“And then there’s Jack,” Mark repeated in a grumble. He shook his head, lifting his hand in a ‘what the hell’ gesture. “I knew it. I  _ knew _ there was something off with him. We shouldn’t have let him head back out to begin with.”

“Sorry. I really did try to keep my eye on him,” Cry apologized. “Although I would’ve thought he’d have spaced at least a little bit when a clock was broken-”

“There’s a lot of weird things going on with him right now,” Mark pointed out. “Now we have to find the others and again, find  _ him _ .”

“Why  _ does _ he keep running off anyway?” Felix wondered. “It seemed the second he got here, he couldn’t get away again fast enough.”

“I don’t know, I don’t…” Mark mumbled, staring at his injuries as he and Tyler worked on patching them up and shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Ethan was silent throughout the conversation, lost in his own thoughts and barely listening to the conversation at hand-but finally he shook his head slowly and looked around at everyone. “I don’t really know what he’s doing. But whatever it is, I think he has good reason for it and...I think somehow, he might be trying to help us.” As everyone turned eyes to look at him, he continued, “That monster was going to kill me and Tyler. If Jack hadn’t shown up in time…” He couldn’t suppress a small shudder at the memory of the monster staring down at him with those soulless black eyes.

“Come to think of it, that’s pretty much how he ended up splitting away from me earlier, just before I found you guys-” Cry began. Thinking for a moment, he added, “Mark-he did that with you too, didn’t he? When he left you hiding out in the bathroom?”

“Well...yeah, but-” Mark paused. Frowned. Then shook his head, holding up a hand. “Wait, wait, wait. So what are you suggesting here? You think he’s trying to lead the monsters away from us?”

Ethan shrugged. “If he’s done it three times already-”

“But how does that even make  _ sense? _ ” Mark wondered, exchanging looks with the others. “So what, he’s just...wandering around in this ginormous house, randomly looking for anyone that’s been cornered at any point in time?”

“Clearly he knows something we don’t,” Cry pointed out. “Or he’s  _ really _ not thinking straight. Or both. Really it could be any of those things at this point.”

Silence fell over the area as this sank in, finally broken by Mark’s agitated sigh. “ _ Dammit _ , we have to go find him. I don’t know what he’s even thinking right now, but if that really is the case, he’s going to get himself killed.”

Tyler helped Mark finish patching up and stepped away, eyeing him. Knowing his friend’s stubbornness, he finally said, “Well. It’s not going to be  _ you _ looking for him.”

Felix frowned, then covered his face with one hand, muttering something in exasperated Swedish. Mark meanwhile frowned, shaking his head firmly.

“What? No. You’re not going out there alone-”

“He doesn’t have to,” Cry sighed, finally pulling the gauze away and giving a sniffle. He worked on straightening his mask a bit before turning to face them-giving them all a good look at the bloody fingerprints around the bottom of the mask. “I’m kinda the one to blame for this, I’m the one who lost him. And I’m still good to go-”

“The fuck you are,” Felix piped up, frowning at Cry. “We don’t even know why your nose started bleeding-”

“Yeah, but it’s  _ just _ a nosebleed,” Cry argued. “C’mon, Felix-”

“I’ll go,” Ethan piped up, moving to his feet-first cautiously, then a bit more confident as he took a couple steps forward.

“Yeah, no, that’s  _ definitely _ not happening-” Mark said firmly. “After what happened last time-I mean,  _ god _ , Ethan, you  _ just _ woke up-”

“Yeah, well, I’m currently thinking that might not’ve even happened if not for Jack,” Ethan shot back with a frown. “And that’s what I’m going to keep thinking until proven otherwise-”

“And that’s  _ fine _ . I  _ get _ that, I do. I’m not saying that wasn’t a thing, I’m just-” Mark frowned, looking back and forth between Ethan and Tyler. “Last time you two went out wandering, I almost lost both of you guys.  _ We _ almost did. And-you don’t even know where to start looking-”

“I think I might have an idea,” Cry spoke up from the corner. If he was making a face at the looks Mark and Felix were giving him, they couldn’t see it. “Tell you what:  _ I’ll _ go with them. Nosebleed aside, I’m actually in pretty good shape, no injuries prior or otherwise. And it’ll be safer to go in a group of three as opposed to a group of two-” He paused in consideration before adding, “And this time I’ll be on my guard if anyone decides to break any clocks around me.”

“ _ Guys _ , what did I just say about us splitting up in general anymore-?” Felix demanded, but he finally shook his head with a frustrated sigh. “I’m not gonna be able to stop any of you either way, am I?”

“Not really, no,” Cry replied wryly as he passed his knife to Mark to grab the katana next to the door instead, and the Swede could almost hear the tired, sympathetic smile on the man’s face. “But if things pan out the way I’m thinking, we should have everyone rounded up and back here within the next hour or so.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Felix warned, giving him a firm look.

“Guys-” Mark paused, frowning. His worry was almost tangible, reluctance clear on his features. “Be careful.”

Tyler looked him in the eyes and nodded, a quick, silent conversation between childhood friends. “We will.”

With that said, the three headed outside, pausing until they heard the click of the lock before making their way down the corridor. The trio remained in silence for a bit, ears open for any sounds belonging to monsters or otherwise, until they reached the top of the stairs.

“So you said you had an idea as to where to start looking?” Ethan asked, looking over at Cry. “Where did you have in mind?”

“Uh-” Cry gave a tiny shrug. “Well, it’s not so much  _ where _ , but-” At the look the others gave him, he quickly continued, “I  _ do _ think we’re gonna end up finding Jack and the others all in one spot. So wherever we’re hearing commotion. I figure considering it’s three to five people plus a monster, we’re likely to hear them even in a large house like this-especially once shit starts hitting the fan.”

“So wandering,” Tyler sighed.

“Well, I mean-” Cry began, but then he shrugged helplessly. “Well I mean,  _ yeah _ , kind of wandering.  _ Yeah _ . But just...more like wandering with educated guesses.”

“We’ll have to hear the commotion first though,” Ethan pointed out as he looked around, unable to keep some of the tenseness and anxiety out of his figure.

Tyler glanced over at him. “You didn’t have to come-” he started, to which Ethan shook his head.

“No, I  _ wanted _ to come,” he replied. Glancing back up at Tyler, he offered him a tiny smile of reassurance. “Don’t worry. I feel fine, it’s okay.”

As Cry looked around, he finally sighed with the acceptance that they were going to have to come to a decision sooner or later. As he reached back into his hood to scratch the back of his neck, he finally said, “Matthias had a vision that Joey and Bryan got killed in one of the bedrooms in this place. That’s part of why he was so determined to get searching as soon as he found out the two had wandered off. If I were him, I’d start checking bedrooms.”

Tyler shrugged. “Sounds like as good of a lead as any, I guess,” he agreed. “Bedrooms it is.”

“Wait, hold on. What’s this about visions?” Ethan asked. As they started making their way to the other bedroom in the back of the house where Matthias had his vision, Cry proceeded to explain the clock revelations as well as a few other things that had happened up to this point.

When they reached the bedroom, Cry peeked in and looked around, shaking his head. “Uh-nah, dawg,” he replied, pulling his head back out but leaving the door open. He turned back to the others. “Okay, let’s go check out some other rooms.”

A quick trip to the former safe room, as well as one to the conference room, and yet the search by far was proving fruitless. Cry let out a soft sigh. “You know, it would really help if we had more keys to this place. Maybe we should’ve asked Mark for his before heading out.”

“I’m not really sure they’d be in a locked room and ignore our knocking,” Ethan pointed out. Looking back and forth between the two, he added, “Has anyone tried upstairs yet?”

Cry blinked, then turned halfway to glance back at the staircase. “Well, uh-” Thinking for a moment, he replied, “I think Felix was up there briefly before falling through the floor. But otherwise, not that I really know of.”

“Worth a shot,” Tyler muttered, making his way to the stairs. The others moved to follow without argument, the trio cautiously climbing the stairs in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ethan's finally awake! And having some weird dreams. Jack is gone... _again_. And Cry's getting nosebleeds. Overall, I'd say everyone is totally in good shape. But anyway, so much for all the support! It really goes a long way in writing and posting this. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	17. Chapter 16

“Found something,” J-Fred suddenly spoke up, off in a corner with a chest of drawers. His companion glanced over from the book- _Transfert di Memoria_ -before setting it back down on the bookshelf and making his way over to take a look. The pair had managed to make it up to the fourth floor after bolting from one of those monsters, slipping into the room they figured Felix must've fallen from judging by the hole in the floor. J-Fred held up a pistol, making sure to be careful with its handling. Bryan’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Is it loaded?” he asked, watching as J-Fred checked. The other shook his head.

“No. But I think I know where we can find ammo-” J-Fred’s voice petered out when they suddenly heard two sharp knocks on the door, lifting his head to glance over.

As Bryan exchanged a look with J-Fred, he whispered, “Monsters don’t knock.”

J-Fred nodded, heading over with Bryan and keeping a tight grip on the gun. With a nod to the other, Bryan moved to open the door and peek out, letting out a sigh of relief as Matthias and Ken stepped inside, closing the door behind them.

“Thank god…” Matthias muttered, hurrying forward to give them both a hug.

“What? What happened?” J-Fred asked as Matthias pulled away, glancing over at Ken. “What’s going on?”

“You left the safe room-” Matthias began.

“Yeah, to look for you. You were gone for half an hour-” J-Fred replied, frowning.

“We weren’t gone longer than ten minutes-”

“And then I got a clock vision of you both being killed, and then we found a _video-_ ”

“Wait, what _video?_ ”

Ken held up a camcorder. “It’s, uh, pretty graphic. I’m not sure you’re really gonna want to see it,” he warned. “Just believe us when we say you guys die in it.”

“Where did you even find that?” Bryan asked, frowning, voice soft with confusion and concern.

“One of the bedrooms on the second floor,” Matthias replied. “Hidden away on a bookshelf.”

“But we’re obviously still alive…?” J-Fred began.

“Yeah, we’re pretty confused, too,” Ken agreed. Looking around, he added, “Look guys. Bottom line here, we’re all back together, I think we all need to _stay_ together until we make it back to the safe room. Agreed?”

“Definitely,” Matthias muttered with a sigh. His eyes falling on J-Fred’s hand, his eyes widened slightly. “Did you guys find a _gun?_ ”

“In the drawer. Unfortunately it’s just this one and there’s no ammo in it,” J-Fred replied, holding up the gun. “But we think we know where we might could get some.”

“If monsters in here are immune to _bullets_ , we’re in trouble,” Ken noted.

“Yeah, let’s just focus on the positives at the moment, at least until it’s proven otherwise,” Bryan suggested. “We could really use at least _one_ win-”

It was at that moment the door suddenly burst open, causing everyone to turn to it and freeze. The creature-the bulky, sturdy one-stood in the doorway, staring at them.

Matthias was the first to move, immediately shifting himself between the monster and J-Fred.

“Matt-!” J-Fred started, but just as the monster took a step forward to charge them, it suddenly stopped, whipping around.

Staring at Jack, who stood there panting.

“Well?” Jack questioned. “We gonna fuckin’ go?”

The monster immediately took a swipe, which Jack just barely ducked to avoid before quickly turning on his heel and bolting. The monster took chase, seemingly forgetting about the other four, but upon reaching the stairs-

Jack almost crashed into the three coming up on the stairs-Cry, Ethan and Tyler-and his eyes widened. “What the fu-” His eyes lingered on two of them, paling in silent realization of something. “ _Fuck!_ ”

And that’s when all chaos erupted.

The monster appeared behind him, doing another swipe with its claws.

“Jack!” Cry exclaimed, stepping forward.

Jack staggered as bloody trails appeared across his back, but he shot a panicked look to Cry in spite of it.

“ _Don’t!_ ” he suddenly commanded, causing Cry to freeze with surprise.

“ _What?!_ ”

“Go find cover-” Jack turned to face the monster, backing away and towards the stairs. “ _Hurry!_ ”

“I don’t really think that’s a-” Ethan began.

“What the-?!” Ken exclaimed from the doorway of the room they were hiding in, the others behind him.

Upon seeing the open door, Tyler reached out to grab Ethan’s arm and Cry’s hoodie, hauling them past the monster and into the room with focused determination.

“Tyler, Jack-!” Cry started as the others in the room backed from the door to give them space for entry.

“I _know!_ ” Tyler replied, turning back to the door to Jack and the monster. But both were already gone from view at this point, the sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs.

Turning back to the others, he could relate to their exchange of bewildered looks. _What the absolute hell-?_

“Should...should we…?” Matthias questioned, glancing over at the door.

“I don’t feel very comfortable just letting Jack take off to try and lead that thing away on his own,” Ethan replied quietly. “If we can help it, at least.”

“He _did_ get injured,” Tyler agreed.

“Yeah, but kinda starting to think Jack knows what he’s doing at this point,” Cry muttered. Clearing his voice and looking back at the others, he added, “Is it just me or did he seem panicked when he noticed us?”

“I think we can get why he’d be panicked in this case,” J-Fred pointed out. “Or why _anyone_ would be panicked when the monster’s right there-”

“No-no-no, I mean-” Cry shook his head. “When he first saw-” He glanced back at Tyler and Ethan, then shook his head. He felt he’d seen... _something_. But until he really understood what it was, he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to call attention and discuss it. So letting out a sigh, he muttered, “Ugh, nevermind-”

“Cry, are you _bleeding-?_ ” Ken suddenly asked, staring.

Cry subconsciously reached up to touch his mask and chin, but shook his head. “I was,” he replied, then quickly added, “But it was just a nosebleed. It’s fine; it’s stopped by now.” Thinking things over, he finally said, “Well. I was hoping we could round up _everyone_ this way, Jack included. Mark and Felix are gonna throw a fit if we don’t have everyone together when regroup…”

“Should we all go together to help Jack then?” Bryan asked, frowning.

Tyler shook his head. “Not everybody’s _armed_ ,” he pointed out.

“We’ve got a katana-” Cry began, glancing over at Matthias. “Matt, you still got your flamethrower…?”

Matthias nodded. “Yeah. Ken’s got a swiss army knife.”

“Knife’s in the safe room-”

“I’ve got a gun,” J-Fred suddenly spoke up, drawing all eyes on the pistol he held up.

There was a silence that was finally broken by Cry.

“Holy _fuck_ , dude.”

“Is it…?” Ethan began hopefully, to which J-Fred shook his head.

“It’s not loaded,” he replied. “But we think we can get some ammo from downstairs.”

“Okay, well that’s _good_ , but until then,” Cry replied, feeling a spark of hope in his chest in spite of his words. Yeah, a pistol wasn’t going to be the most powerful of firepower-not as badass as, say, a shotgun. But it was still _something_ , at least, it was way better in a fight than a knife. “Yeah. Okay. So I think maybe we should get anyone who, uh, isn’t armed? Back down to the safe room. Anyone who is, we’ll go get Jack. And for god’s sake, _no one leave_ once in the safe room.”

“I-” Tyler sighed. “That sounds like the best plan we can maybe go with at the moment, yeah.” Looking over at the rest of the group, he asked, “That good with everyone here?”

Matthias hesitated, glancing back at the group. “I think-” he started. His eyes fell on J-Fred, to which he added, “I don’t really think the gun counts until it’s got some ammo in it though.”

“That’s fair, but-” J-Fred began, to which Ethan shook his head, seeing the hesitation at the prospect of a sibling split.

“I’ll take the flamethrower once we get back to the room,” he assured. “Nobody said we couldn’t pass weapons around, after all.”

As the group headed back out to the stairs and started down them, they didn’t realize one of them had stopped until Bryan paused on one of the top stairs to look back at J-Fred.

“Joey?”

“Was that door open when we first came up here?” J-Fred questioned, staring at the door across the hall from the room they were hiding out in.

Bryan frowned, making his way over. “No, it wasn’t,” he replied. The attention of the two drew the rest of the curious group back up the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Tyler asked as Ethan stepped past him to push the door open and cautiously peek inside.

“This door wasn’t open when we first came up here,” Bryan explained. “Which means someone was up here before the monster showed up-unless one of you guys unlocked it?” He glanced over at Matthias and Ken, who shook their heads.

“It looks safe enough,” Ethan murmured as he pushed the door open further. “But maybe the monster came out of it?”

“Doing what? Just hanging out?” Cry wondered. Seeing Ethan step inside, he frowned slightly. “Wait-hang on a minute-”

“It’s fine, I don’t see anything dangerous,” Ethan replied, taking a quick look around before his eyes fell upon something. “...Something kinda weird though.”

“What do you mean by ‘kinda weird’?” Bryan asked. “Most of this _house_ is weird.”

“Yeah, but-” Ethan crossed the room. It wasn’t a very large room, actually, and didn’t seem to have too much in it-a small table with chair, a chest of drawers, a large table in one corner, a bookshelf in another corner, and...what looked to be a door in another?

Tyler frowned, stepping inside and allowing himself to wander over to the door. “I don’t think this is very safe…” he muttered, but upon testing the door, he found it was locked. As the group filtered in, Ken glanced to the right, making his way over to the wall to examine something.

But Ethan had his eye on something across the room, stopping and kneeling down to get a closer look. “What…?” he muttered, frowning at the glittering pile of...dust? “What _is_ this?”

He slowly reached out to touch it, cautious, although it certainly didn’t _look_ dangerous. Cry wandered over, followed by the brothers. “What’d you find?”

“I’m not really-” Ethan began, but as his fingers made contact with the dust, his eyes widened as he suddenly felt something akin to an electrical jolt run up his arm. His hand immediately snapped back, staring down at it as he could’ve sworn he saw faint blue glowing pulses running up and down just beneath the skin, a sort of shimmer around his fingertips.

“Ethan?” Matthias asked worriedly, leaning forward instinctively to check on the blunette.

“Uh-” Ethan blinked, still staring at his hand, then looking down at the dust. Suddenly it was dull, like all the shimmer had been sucked out of it. “Guys I-” His eyes flickered back over to his hand once more. “I think my hand just went Bioshock all of a sudden-” But now there was nothing, no weird...glows or shimmers. Maybe just a mild tingle at best.

“ _Bioshock?_ ” Cry repeated incredulously, leaning forward to get a better look himself. But when nothing happened and an awkward silence settled, he finally voiced what everyone else who was watching was thinking. “...Uh…” Another pause, then, “I don’t really see anything.”

“Well, it’s not really _now_ , but-” Ethan shook his head, giving his hand a small shake as he rose to his feet, trying to ignore the sudden strange sensation flowing throughout the rest of his body.

“Guys? Um-” Ken glanced back at them over his shoulder before looking back at the wall, then finally turning to them fully. “I think I just found a hidden door.”

“A-what?” Cry asked, heading over to join Ken as Tyler meanwhile wandered over to Ethan to check on him with all the commotion going about.

“See? Look at this,” Ken pointed out, tracing his finger along a very noticeable straight indent in the wallpaper. A look over it in full showed its shape as rectangular.

“Huh...it _is_ a door,” Cry muttered. Glancing back at the others, he then looked over at Ken, then back at the the indent. “Hey, Ken...what was that about you having a Swiss army knife?”

The other man’s face lit up in realization as he pulled it out of his pocket, flipping it open and giving the masked man a nod before setting the camera in his hand off to the side and getting to work.

“What are you-?” J-Fred started, heading over with a slight frown of confusion.

“Ken found a hidden door,” Cry informed. “If I were to hide a key to the front door anywhere…”

J-Fred’s eyebrows rose in realization and he nodded, glancing back at the others.

“But hey, in the meantime, if we’re all gonna be in here,” Cry added. “If you guys could keep an eye out for any clocks or keys within the immediate vicinity? Just in case.”

“Uh-right-” J-Fred agreed, heading back over to the others.

As Ken worked on cutting the wallpaper, Cry felt along the suspected door in hopes of finding any spot or opportunity where it might actually push open while listening to the others rummaging around behind them. It took several minutes, but finally-

“Alright, I think that about does it,” Ken announced, taking a step back to observe their handiwork. Glancing over at Cry, he noted, “Don’t really see a knob or anything though.”

“Hm, maybe if we just…” Cry studied the indent for a moment, tapping his finger lightly against his mask in thought. “...I don’t suppose the swiss army knife would really work in prying the thing open, would it? Maybe if we had something a bit stronger with some more leverage?”

“Maybe it’s possible to just kick it in?” Tyler suggested, glancing over.

“Uh-well. Maybe?” Cry suggested. But then, “Although that might end up attracting unwanted attention…” After a moment of silence, he suddenly brought his hand to his forehead. “Oh- _shit_ , I’m an idiot-!” Reaching to grab the katana sheath from under his belt, he pulled the sword out and studied the blade for a moment, then glanced back at everyone. They were all watching now; he couldn’t help but shift just slightly in discomfort. “The, uh, katana,” he explained, the tone in his voice reflecting his self-consciousness. “It might actually be strong enough to-here-”

Sticking the katana blade through the crack between the door and the wall, he bent it carefully, praying it wouldn’t break in the process. There might’ve been more than one in the dojo, he’d have to double-check on that, but if not. If not, he _really_ didn’t want to be the one responsible for breaking one of their better weapons.

And thankfully he was correct, once he’d gotten the blade in far enough. Sure enough, the door slowly started to push open until finally Ken was able slip his fingers through and pull it open.

It was difficult to see the interior as there was no real light in the room. Whatever illumination poured through the doorway from the room they were currently standing in, and as Cry stepped away, he stared into the room for a long silence before looking back at everyone again.

“Uh-” He glanced back into the room, then back at the others again. “...Anybody got a flashlight?”

“Ah-here-” Matthias replied, clicking on the lighter and moving forward. It produced very little light though, not nearly enough to produce much comfort and comprehension of the room’s interior.

What little they _could_ make out though was that the room was filled with junk of all kinds-tin basins, camera equipment, lighting-

“Here, here, here,” J-Fred suddenly muttered, pulling one of the stands with a light fixture over to the doorway and passing the cord to Bryan, who moved to plug it into an outlet not too far off.

“Ah, good idea,” Tyler agreed, moving forward to help position it. Flipping the switch, light suddenly flooded the room and now they could see just how cluttered it all was. The others curiously began filtering inside to look around, curiously prodding at some of the stuff here and there. As Tyler picked up one of the tin basins partway, he glanced over at the others.

“Is it just me, or does some of this stuff look very familiar?”

Ethan meanwhile drifted through the piles of stuff strewn carelessly around, spying a bloodied bomber jacket draped over some other junk, and on the floor next to it-

“ _Ah-!_ ” he suddenly hissed, bringing his hand up and drawing it into himself on reflex. There was that tingle again, joined by a feeling of warmth. When he looked down at his hand, he could see the faint blue pulses glowing underneath the skin and bit his lip with a frown. “ _Why?_ ” he whispered. An idea suddenly coming to mind, he tentatively outstretched his hand as if feeling the air, drifting it this way and that. It was just a test, just a theory but…

Every time his hand was directed towards the book laying on the floor next to the bomber jacket, the sensation got stronger.

“ _This?_ ” he whispered, as if his hand would provide him with a straight answer. He reached down to pick up the book, rising back up. As he flipped the book open, he peered at its text but struggled to read any of it with the light provided.

“Um...hey, guys?” he called over, holding up his hand. “The thing is happening aga-”

But his words were suddenly cut short by the sound of a clunk against the floorboards, drawing everyone’s alarmed stares. The sound had come from Cry, who stood frozen with something in hand. Ethan blinked a few times and closed the book, briefly distracted from his own issues and heading over.

“...Cry?”

The other man was silent and unmoving. And when he got a closer look at the thing in the man’s hand, he froze as well, his eyes going wide. He knew the others were staring at them, wondering just what the _hell_ was going on, but he couldn’t find any words to reach his lips. Not yet, not now. His eyes flickered over to Cry, almost _daring_ the other one to speak, to be the one to confirm exactly what it was he was looking at.

And he did. When Cry spoke though, his usually-calm voice was shaken, revealing just how much this had rocked him to his core.

“This...this is my mask,” he whispered, finally moving again if only to turn the cracked and chipped mask over in his hands and take in the spots on it that were more than just speckled with dried blood on both sides. “This is _my_ mask, what the _fuck_ -?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're about there...things are building up. Strap in because shit's about to get crazy. In the meantime, thanks for all the support, it helps so much in writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	18. Chapter 17

As Ethan looked around, he started noticing that the mask wasn’t the only thing that looked familiar. Some of the equipment was eerily reminiscent of their own. Not all of it, but enough to suddenly make the situation extremely uncomfortable. The silence that permeated the room showed he wasn’t the only one starting to notice this, too.

Finally Bryan shook his head, heading out of the room with a few things, followed by his brothers-in-law. Ken picked up another camcorder nearby, fiddling with it for a moment before closing the screen again and following the others out.

Tyler frowned, eyes still on the basin he initially prodded at before pulling them away to shoot a look at Ethan. Ethan nodded shakily. “Yeah, I know. I know-” he muttered in response to the silent question from the other. Tyler then looked over at Cry, who still stood frozen and staring at the mask. Frowning, he made his way over to the other, reaching out to lightly touch his shoulder.

“Hey. Cry,” he said quietly. “Cry, c’mon, let’s get out of here.”

Cry looked up at him, still for a while longer before finally giving a slow, tiny nod. He reached down, grabbing the katana that’d slipped from his fingers while the found mask remained clutched in his other hand. As they joined the others outside, they could hear J-Fred muttering, “I don’t think I like this room very much.”

“Yeah, you and me both,” Matthias muttered in return, glancing over at the others as they emerged.

“Oh-” Bryan glanced back, then walked over to the chest of drawers to hold up a clock from one of them. “Found this. I was gonna point it out before, uh-” He gestured over to the creepy room, to which the others nodded in understanding. “Should I...should I break it?”

“I…” Matthias began, a cringe coming over his face, but Cry nodded, seeming to snap out of his daze if only for a couple minutes.

“Yeah, go for it,” he advised, although even he sounded a little hesitant. He then turned to Tyler and Ethan. “I don’t think you guys have been through this yet, have you? Just remember to backtrack from this point once you get whatever memory you have. A lot of times what you see isn’t real but they tend to _feel_ otherwise.”

Bryan nodded, dropping the clock and giving it a stomp.

Although everyone more or less braced themselves, Ethan looked around at everyone in confusion, almost disappointed when-

“...Uh. You guys?” he asked, wide eyes blinking at everyone.

Everyone seemed still and quiet, lost in thought or memory or _whatever it was-_

Everyone except him.

Why wasn’t anything happening to him?

Suddenly Tyler seemed to snap out of his daze, looking around the room before heading over to the bookcase.

“Tyler?” Ethan asked, frowning as he watched.

“There’s something back here,” he grunted as he gave the bookcase a shove, to which the other set the book down nearby and hurried over to help.

“What makes you say that?”

“Saw it in a vision-”

“I thought they weren’t supposed to be real?”

But as the bookcase was shoved aside, a panel was revealed: a screen for four numbers and a small keypad underneath.

Ethan stared, unsure what to make of it. Finally he asked again, “...They’re _not_ , aren’t they?”

By this point, everyone else was gradually starting to snap out of their own visions with varying degrees of confusion, disorientation and alarm. But as they all gradually backtracked their way to actual memory, this quickly seemed to clear. Ken made his way over to Cry, giving the other a light tap to rouse him from his vision. Cry paused, then shook his head, drawing in a deep breath. When he looked towards the panel on the wall, he froze.

“What is that?” J-Fred wondered, wandering over to the panel.

“We’re not really sure,” Tyler admitted. “But I saw it in a vision. I figure it has some kind of relevance.”

“I saw that…” Cry suddenly spoke up, sounding a bit stunned. “I saw that a couple visions ago. Before I even came up here-” He looked around in sudden realization. “This is the room.”

Tyler frowned, eyeing Cry. “What happened in the vision?” he asked. “Did you have the code already?”

“I-” And suddenly Cry went silent, seeming to shrink under their attention, uncertainty in his tone. “...I might’ve gotten into a fight-”

“I don’t like this,” Matthias said, shaking his head. “Bad enough these visions seem way too real already. Now some of us are having visions of the same thing before we even know about them in real life-” Looking around at everyone worriedly, he asked, “Are we _sure_ these visions aren’t actually real?”

A silence fell over the room that was blanketed over by sudden overlapping loud crashes of thunder outside, drawing their attention to the ceiling. The wordless silence however was  finally broken by Cry, who glanced down at the mask in his hand again, then looked over at the door to the hallway. “I think we need to get back to the safe room,” he suddenly said, abruptly moving to head briskly out of the room.

“Cry?” Ken asked.

“I’ve got a bad feeling.”

* * *

“So first Jack’s being all distant and secretive, now Cry…” Felix sighed, leaning his head back to rest against the interior of the armoire. “I just wanna know what the hell is going on around here.”

“I dunno if I’d quite call Cry _secretive_ ,” Mark pointed out, having finally sat down. Up until about this point he found himself unable to stop moving. Unable to stop fidgeting, unable to stop pacing. Until Felix finally got on his case, eventually managing to talk him into sitting down for a few minutes at least. Mark sighed from his spot on the bed, a frown on his face. “Cry’s just-” He hesitated, trying to think of the best way to put it without going into all the details of their discussion in the dojo.

Okay, so maybe Cry _was_ being a little bit secretive. And by extension, so was he, for that matter.

“He’s just a little preoccupied,” he finally finished, if not somewhat lamely. He shook his head, deciding to elaborate as best he could. “I think it’s just that he’s got some ideas as to what might be going on but he doesn’t want to cause a panic until he’s sure of anythi-”

His words were cut short when they heard a sudden knock on the door, drawing both their attentions to it.

Mark exchanged a glance with Felix before moving to his feet. “Thank god,” he muttered with a sigh, quickly heading over to the door. “That was fast.”

But as he unlocked and opened the door, his eyes were met with...no one. Nobody was standing in front of the door, who the hell could’ve knocked?

“Oh, c’mon. Don’t tell me the monsters are now ding-dong-ditching us,” Mark growled as he poked his head out the door and looked down the hall.

Looked down the hall to see a flash of green-

“Jack!” he exclaimed. He hesitated, glanced back at Felix, who shook his head with wide eyes.

“Mark-”

“Stay here, I’ll be back in just a second-”

“Mark- _no! DAMMIT MARK-!_ ”

Mark twisted the lock in spite of Felix’s protests, slipping out the door and closing it behind him. As he turned in the direction he saw Jack, he saw the Irishman turn the corner into the main second-floor hallway and took off after him with an undeniable limp. Another corner turned into one of the front corridors, the sound of a door slamming-Jack should be in one of the rooms overlooking the front yard of the house now. Mark reached the door he’d heard close, grasping it testingly, and was surprised at how it easily twisted in his hand.

Swinging the door open, his eyes took in the room for a quick second-a bunch of bookcases to his right, two twin beds across from them, a TV to his left with a large coffee table and sofa. And those same eyes fell upon Jack, whose back was turned to him. The Irishman was clutching his hand with the book he’d been carrying tucked under one arm, his position slouched as if doubling over in some sort of pain or exhaustion or both. When he spoke, it was a voice beyond irritation.

“ _Goddammit, Anti, can’t I go for at least twenty damn minutes without you taunt-?!_ ”

Seeing Mark, his expression changed immediately. His blue eyes went wide, a deer-in-the-headlights expression as the color drained from his face and he stood frozen, hand still grasping the other.

Mark stared at the Irishman; he looked like hell-exhausted, frazzled. But now his mind was suddenly buzzing with so many questions, questions that _had_ to get out before they drove him completely nuts or before Jack took off again.

“You were the one who knocked on the door to the safe room,” he pointed out, taking a step forward.

Jack blinked once, then twice, then shook his head. “I-”

“Jack.” Mark’s tone was firm now as he took another step. “Why did you think I was _Anti_?”

Really, that was straight something right out of left field. Anti was fictional, just some character the fandom came up with that made occasional appearances-particularly around Halloween but still.

_Anti wasn’t real._

Now he took a couple more steps closer to Jack, further from the door. Now that he’d asked a couple questions, he couldn’t _stop_ asking them.

“Why did you split away from Cry? Why do you keep running from us?”

The Irishman remained frozen and silent; the only movement from him was a gradually deepening frown.

“Why are all the weird visions concerning you? Why did Felix see you head upstairs when he got ambushed by the monster?” Several more steps forward and now he was almost directly in front Jack. The other-currently standing between the twin beds-had nowhere to go at this point except the couple steps he took backwards, but even that brought his back to the wall. At this point his blue eyes flickered to something behind Mark, a look of realization and recognition seeming to flash through them with a jolt. His face took on a shade of ashen, clutching the book-that _damned book_ -even tighter to himself as if it were lifeline.

“Mark-” he began. His voice came out hoarse, reflecting a sudden rising edge of panic in his eyes.

Mark didn’t listen. He still had more questions. He vaguely remembered this being something he and Cry had discussed and his senses were telling him _not to do this._ Not like this. Jack was his friend, but-but he had questions that _needed_ to be addressed, and the other was acting so damn _weird_ ever since they entered this house. And now weird had turned into alarming and potentially even dangerous to everybody else and _god_ this needed to be done sooner or later. After everything that’d happened up to this point, he really didn’t know any other way he could get the other to actually _talk_ to him.

His next two seemed like questions of little consequence, but it was something that’d been _nagging_ at him since within the first twenty minutes or so of getting here.

“Why was the bucket downstairs empty when you clearly spent time filling it? And furthermore- _how did you know the library was locked when you weren’t even in here when we tried it?_ ”

“ _Mark!”_ Jack’s voice was sharpened by that definite panic in his eyes now. His form had gradually shrunk as he drew into himself throughout Mark’s words and as he looked up at the other man, his face had taken on another look: pleading. “Close the door and lock it.”

“What? _No._ Jack, I take my eyes off you for a second and you’re just gonna run away again-!” A sudden loud boom of thunder would’ve drowned out his words if he had more to say, rattling the house and everything in it. This only seemed to increase the Irishman’s panic further.

“Mark, shut the door and lock it!” Jack tried again, a note of desperation now entering his voice. “ _Please_ lock the door!”

“Those monsters don’t even know we’re in here. No, not until I get some answers-!”

“I’ll answer whatever you want, just _please-!_ ”

But Jack’s words were cut off by the sound of the door swinging the rest of the way open hard enough to loudly slam against the wall, causing Mark to freeze, eyes widening.

He didn’t even have to ask who had opened the door. The sound alone, and then the look on Jack’s face was the final nail in the coffin. The panic on Jack’s face was still there, but now a different look bled into it: despair. A broken look with eyes that bordered on total panic.

“Oh god...oh god, I’m so sorry, Mark,” Jack said, voice beginning to break, eyes blinking rapidly. Both of his hands clutched the book in his arms now, so tight the knuckles to his shaking hands were white. “I fucked up. _I fucked up again_ , I’m so sorry-”

“Jack-” Mark began, frowning. This was all kinds of levels of wrong. Jack was their friend, but according to Cry’s visions, also potentially dangerous? But now this? And what the hell did he mean by-

No. No, he really couldn’t focus on this now. They kind of had a problem at hand. Two, in fact, because on top of the monster blocking any means of escape and them being literally cornered thanks to the beds they were between now (although that could be dealt with easily enough), now Jack was starting to full-on panic and-

 _Shit_ , he should’ve listened. He should’ve listened to Cry, he should’ve listened to Felix, he should’ve listened to Jack. Now they were in this predicament and it really wasn’t looking good for either of them-

As he turned around to take in the monster-it was the first one that plagued them _goddammit_ -he suddenly heard a few pairs of footsteps coming from the corridor, just outside the door, followed by Cry’s voice.

“ _Hey! Where’s the challenge in picking on a couple of cornered targets, huh?”_

The monster whipped around, shifting before stepping back out of the room, suddenly charging away. In its place, Tyler and Ken appeared, hurrying inside the room and stopping only a few paces inside the room. Tyler’s eyebrows shot up in alarm at the sight that met them, exchanging a look with Mark in silent conversation.

Ken was the first one to take a step forward, frowning worriedly. “...Jack?”

As Mark turned back to Jack, he saw the other’s eyes glued to the floor, his form shaking and his breathing quick and shallow. His own eyes widened. He’d never seen Jack like this before, but it didn’t take long to recognize it as a panic attack.

“Jack?” he tried. When his friend was unresponsive, he reached forward, hesitated, then lightly touched the other man’s arm. The Irishman half-jumped, half-jerked away, but then remained tentatively and shakily still, arm still somewhat under Mark’s fingertips. “Hey-hey, Jack. C’mon, it’s just me. I’m not going to hurt you,” Mark assured gently, his voice soft. “Jack-” He paused. “Séan? Calm down...just calm down. Focus on your breathing, okay? In and out. C’mon. In…” He drew in a deep inhale. “And out…” He let it out in a slow exhale. “Everything’s gonna be fine. Everything’s gonna be fine. We’re okay-”

 _Cry might not be._ But they’d...they’d address that when they were more able. One problem at a time and-and hopefully they’d be meeting back up with Cry real soon.

He watched as Jack firmly shook his head at his assurances, but was relieved to see that at least he was trying to match his breathing. As he guided Jack through the attack, murmuring occasional instruction and reassurances, Tyler glanced back and quietly headed over to the door, shutting and locking it.

When Jack finally seemed stable enough, he stepped away from the wall he’d pressed himself against but wavered. Ken snapped into action, moving forward to help. “Woah, hey-” he said. Mark adjusted his hand so it was lightly gripping Jack’s arm again, helping to steady the man as best he could.

“Yeah, c’mon, let’s just...get you situated here,” Mark muttered, directing Jack to sit down on one of the beds they stood between. As he did, Ken’s eyes widened-first at Jack, then at the wall, then back again.

“Jack-” he began, staring at the dark red streaks across his back, which had subsequently painted the wall he’d been pressed against. _Right_ , ‘cause Jack got slashed by that monster while drawing it away-

“Oh, _what the fuck_ , Jack-” Mark began, although his tone was more of surprise and worry than anger as he angled around to get a look.

“It’s not as bad as it looks, it’s not-” Jack mumbled wearily.

“It’s _still bleeding_ . I think it’s deeper than what _I_ got-” Mark scolded. He looked over at Ken, then Tyler. “We’ve got to get back to the safe room. This needs to be patched up ASAP-”

“It’s fine, I’ve got it covered-”

“With _what?_ ” Noticing Jack freeze and his breath catch again, Mark shook his head, partly in frustration. “Nevermind. We’re _still_ getting it patched up.” Staring into Jack’s face to take in the total and utter exhaustion and defeat, he noted a dark reddish sheen in his mustache. “Has your nose been bleeding also?”

“Yeah, but that stopped a while ago,” Jack muttered, reaching up to wipe his nose on his sleeve self-consciously regardless.

“First Cry, now you,” Tyler noted softly. He glanced over at the door, then back over at Mark, Jack and Ken. “I’m gonna take a peek out the door and make sure the coast is clear. Hopefully we can all get back to the safe room without incident.”

“Thanks, Tyler,” Mark muttered. Turning back to Jack, he asked, “You gonna be able to manage walking on your own?”

“I _ran_ all the way down from the fourth floor to here. I told you, this injury’s nothin’. I’ll be fine,” Jack assured, slowly moving to his feet. In spite of his own words, getting up came with a wobble.

“Yeah, but you also just had a panic attack,” Ken pointed out, moving to carefully help steady him. “C’mon-”

As he guided the Irishman out from between the two beds and over to the door, Mark followed behind, not wanting to crowd Jack too much. If Jack didn’t look like total hell before, he certainly did now. Bloody, worn, and on top of that, an unnerving...almost numbness to his expression, like one who was shellshocked. It was reflected not just in his expression, but also in his movement. He really wasn’t sure which was worse-this new numbness Jack had taken on or the panicked anxiety from earlier.

Tyler pulled himself back into the room, giving a nod. “All’s clear,” he reported.

“Thank god,” Ken commented, heading out into the hall with Jack. In spite of everything, as unsteady as Jack seemed to be right now, there was little doubt that the Irishman would likely be able to speed away again if a monster showed up.

Speed away and shout for it to follow, because if past experiences have suggested anything…

They thankfully made it back to the safe room without incident, noticing Team Edge and Ethan standing around the door-right, he’d locked it when he took off so that Felix would be safe. Maybe not his smartest move. As he fished around through his pocket while they made their way down the corridor, a note of anxiety suddenly flared up in Jack again as he looked down the hall. “What about Cry-?”

“Cry’s going to be fine. He’s going to be fine, trust me. I’ve seen him run; he’s practically as fast as you,” Mark assured.

Jack frowned and shook his head. “No, you don’t understand, Cry is-” But then he went silent again as he seemed to realize he was slipping up some in his almost-maddening secrecy.

Mark frowned, feeling the strengthening desire to question him again, but after the incident they’d just been through and then another look at his face reminded him that he was going to have to be patient as best as he could possibly manage. So he pushed it away, giving Jack’s shoulder a reassuring pat instead, careful of the injury.

“Cry’s going to be fine,” he replied. “Don’t worry. You’ll see.”

“I’m sorry,” Jack mumbled as the door opened, voice not much different from a lost child who’d just been caught doing something terrible. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to do with it,” Mark assured firmly. “Whatever choice Cry made-” His words were cut short as they finally reached the group, everyone looking over with expressions and remarks of both relief and worry. As they moved forward to check them over, Mark meanwhile produced the key from his pocket, twisting it in the lock and pushing the door open.

“Jack?” Ethan asked, a look of alarm crossing his face when he saw the injury. “Hey, come on. Come over here, just follow me...” As he guided Jack over to the bed, Felix meanwhile looked over at the other newcomers.

“Cry?” he asked worriedly.

“He’ll be back,” Mark assured. “He just saved our asses; he’s gonna need a bit of time to get back.”

Or at least, he _hoped_ that was the case. If he wasn’t back soon…

“And everyone else is okay?” Matthias questioned, looking over Mark, Ken and Tyler.

“As okay as we can be, considering the circumstances,” Mark assured as Ken wandered over to J-Fred and Bryan to look over some of their findings from the hidden upstairs room.

“Geez, you really got hurt out there,” Ethan muttered, staring at Jack’s wound.

“Yeah, here, I’ll...here,” Tyler said, heading over to grab the first aid kit.

“Fellas, I don’t-” Jack said, watching. “You really don’t-” He frowned, his eyes falling upon some of the findings Ken and the others were going over. This seemed to be the last straw. He finally sighed and let his book drop down into his lap, flipping it open. “It really doesn’t matter anymore,” he mumbled.

“Jack-” Felix started, but Jack reached behind himself with a small wince to touch the injury. After a moment he pulled his hand back, fingertips dark red with his own blood.

“...Yeah. I should probably just stick with the finger,” the Irishman muttered. With the bloodied finger he drew it in a backwards circle on the inner front cover of the book, a green light suddenly sparking up before spreading into an intricate circle over his fingertips and a bubble of air with a green-tinted shimmer growing out around his hand. Everyone stared as Jack reached back to his injury again, seeming to brace himself.

“That’s-” Ethan began, watching with wide eyes. As he watched the blood seem to seep back into the injury, he glanced over at Jack’s face. The Irishman was pale, gritting his teeth in preparation. And then suddenly a grunt and a wince as the wound slowly sealed itself, as if being zipped shut. “Holy-Jack, you’re _healing yourself_.”

Silence followed before Jack finally pulled his hand away, letting it drop. “I know,” he replied wearily. “Believe me, I’ve known for...a long time.” Slowly moving to his feet, he looked around. “Who else is hurt? Now that ye all know, I may as well fix that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh-yeah, things are definitely starting to come to light now. Brace yourselves for the next few chapters because... _things_ are gonna be happening. I'm not going to elaborate too much, but _things._ In the meantime, thanks so much for all the support, it helps worlds with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	19. Chapter 18

All was silent for a moment before Felix finally spoke up.

“Fuck man, sign me up-”

“It’s going to hurt a bit.”

“I don’t care, I’m sick of being stuck in this furniture.”

Jack nodded, walking over to the armoire, hand sparking with light again as the other held the book.

“Jack, when did you start being able to _heal people?_ ” Mark asked.

“Yeah, that’s, um- That’s magic,” Matthias pointed out, looking back at his family for confirmation, just to make sure he wasn’t going crazy. “I’m pretty sure that’s magic.”

“Yeah, no, that’s...that’s something,” J-Fred agreed as he stared.

“It’s a long story,” Jack replied tiredly as he reached Felix. “Your back, right?”

“Yeah,” Felix replied, shifting a bit. He hesitated. “...So when you say hurt-”

“You basically experience the pain of the injury all over again.”

Felix gave him a look. “I’m _already_ experiencing that.”

“The _initial_ pain.”

Felix thought this over for a moment before giving his best at an attempted shrug. “Yeah, still good with that. Lay your healing hands on me, Aeris.”

The joke did its job, allowing the tiniest of smiles to flicker across Jack’s face. The Irishman let out a soft snort, raising his hands. “God, I hope not,” he muttered. “Aeris _dies_ at the end-”

“Aeris _dies?_ Goddammit, Jack, _spoilers-!_ ” Felix mocked, but his demeanor faltered with his sharp intake of breath and a cringe as his back seemed to spasm for a moment. It took a bit, a grunt and an audible crack eventually sounding out, but suddenly the Swede straightened a bit, rolling his shoulders and scooting to the edge of the armoire. He let one foot slip out to touch the ground, testingly at first, then the other, then pushed himself out of the armoire fully to rise to his feet. Leaning back a little to stretch and ensure that everything was working at full capacity, he then looked back over at Jack.

“Just to be clear, this isn’t like the mold stuff from Resident Evil or anything, right?” he questioned. “I’m not gonna go crazy and turn into a monster or start hallucinating creepy little girls, am I?”

“Ah-no,” Jack replied, shaking his head. “Don’t worry, you’re gonna be fine.”

“If you do, don’t worry. At least you won’t be alone,” Ethan reassured, cracking a tiny grin in attempted bravado.

“Jack-” Mark spoke up softly, frowning. “I know you don’t want to tal-”

“Here,” Jack interrupted, walking over. “Sit down. You’re next.”

Mark’s frown deepened at the obvious evasion, but he walked over to the bed to sit down. Maybe if he just cooperated, did his best to regain his friend’s trust- “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but we need to know what’s going on-”

“You’re right, I don’t want to talk about it,” Jack replied shortly, hand sparking with green before expanding outward in a circle of healing again. As he purposefully reached forward to Mark’s injury, he continued, “All ye guys need to know is that the situation is being handled and that for once I need all of ye to fuckin’ _trust me_.”

“Yeah, no, that’s not-” Mark suddenly cringed as he felt a dulled pain start to rapidly rise in his injury again, then a searing pain start making its way up the gashes. Letting out a hiss of pain, his eyes turned to Jack, whose eyes were intently focused in concentration, not even really seeming to notice his reaction. When he felt the pain quickly ebb away as if never there, he continued. “Are you sure it’s just a thing of us not trusting _you?_ Maybe it’s more of a thing of you not trusting _us_.”

Jack chose not to answer, remaining silent as he healed up Mark’s leg as well. When he was finally finished, he looked up at Mark, keeping his expression carefully blank.

“Once again, you’re right,” he replied bluntly. “I’m pretty sure it’s both.” Rising to his feet, he suddenly wavered. Unlike all the other times, this time he didn’t quite catch himself.

“Woah, woah, hey-” Mark exclaimed, jumping to his feet to catch Jack’s arms and steady him. “Easy. Here, _you_ sit down. Geez, you look like you’re about to collapse-” Even more than before. As his eyes flickered to Jack’s hand, he could see that the light around it had gone out completely. His eyes then flickered back to the book as he helped maneuver Jack around to sit on the bed. “Here…” He let out a soft sigh, exchanging a worried look at the others. “Would you...would you feel better discussing this one on one, maybe?”

Jack snorted again, glancing over at the door. “Last I checked, ye all weren’t too keen on people splitting up. There’s no way we could do one-on-one otherwise,” he pointed out flatly. “And ‘one-on-one’ about got you killed, in case you’ve already forgotten. Fuck, for all we know, it’s probably already gotten _Cry_ killed. No, Mark. What’s going on with me ain’t up for discussion at all.”

“Jack-” Ken piped up, taking a step forward. “You _just_ said it didn’t matter anyway. Right?” He watched as Jack shifted a bit and looked away. “You just opened up a book and _magically healed_ people right in front of us. What could possibly be so out there that you can’t tell us-”

“If there’s still even any shred of salvaging the situation at hand, I don’t want to risk it,” Jack interrupted. “I _can’t_ risk it. If we all get out of this alive somehow, I’ll be more than willing to explain then. Until that time comes though-”

His words were cut short by a sharp pair of knocks on the door, drawing everyone’s attention to it. Bryan made his way over, unlocking the door and peeking out before stepping aside and pulling it open further.

“It’s Cry,” he announced, letting the masked man slip in before shutting the door behind him and locking it.

Cry was breathing hard, clearly exhausted from his most recent running spree, but otherwise looked fine. “Uh-hey guys-”

“Cry?” Mark asked, turning his attention to him and heading over. “Everything alright? No injuries?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Cry assured, giving Mark a small wave to brush it off. “Just-tired.”

“Well, at least it’s just that,” Mark sighed with relief. “Cry? You really saved our asses back there, so...thanks.”

“Hey...don’t mention it,” Cry replied, heading over to sit on the other end of the bed, but then he suddenly stopped to stare at Felix. “Holy fuck, you’re standing.”

“Yeah, uh, so it turns out Jack’s the party healer,” Felix replied. He shook his head. “Because we really _are_ in a Japanese video game at this point.”

“Really?” Cry glanced over at Mark, then over at Jack. His tone didn’t sound nearly as surprised as they would’ve anticipated. “Huh.”

“What’s that you have in your hand?” Mark asked, leaning a bit to get a look.

“This? Oh, uh-I’m not really sure yet,” Cry replied, holding up the mask only a little bit but not giving much of a good view. Stealing another look at Jack, who’d suddenly tensed a bit, he added, “Ah-I’m sure it’s not all that important at this point.” Turning his attention to Bryan, he added, “I never did ask what you found.”

“More weapons,” Bryan replied, moving to grab some things he’d set down by the wall. “A baseball bat and...a crossbow with some arrows-”

“Crossbow?” Matthias frowned, looking over at Ken with a troubled expression. “Ken, the video-”

“What-” A look of realization dawned across Ken’s face. “Oh yeah, that’s right.” Turning to the others, he explained, “There was a video we found of Joey and Bryan, uh, fighting one of the monsters. In the video, something was being shot at the monster. And now that you’ve found the crossbow, we have a good idea of what that was.”

“Really?” Bryan glanced down at the crossbow. “How effective was it?” Noticing Matthias’s face as the blond looked away, his own expression fell. “...I’m guessing not very.”

“Well-what all did you find in there? You brought something out too,” J-Fred pointed out, eyeing Ken.

“Ah, another camcorder,” Ken replied. He winced slightly. “Although after seeing the footage on the last one, I kinda don’t even wanna know what’s on this one here.”

“And Ethan?” Matthias asked, looking over at the blunette.

The young man looked over with a startled look, having been absorbed with examining his own object in question from where he was sitting on the floor against the wall next to the bed. “Oh, uh, a book,” he replied, holding it up.

“A book?” Mark was unable to stop himself from glancing over at Jack, who remained tense and silent, but then looked back at Ethan. When he spoke, his voice was wary. “What kind of book?”

“I’m actually trying to figure that out now,” Ethan replied, flipping through its pages. As his eyes skimmed over some of the text, his eyebrows raised higher and higher. “...Guys, this book looks like something that was taken from _Harry Potter_.”

“What?” Tyler headed over to take a closer look, followed by Mark. The two peered down at the page the book was currently opened to, one that looked permanently bunny-eared. Ethan slowly traced his finger down the page, pausing underneath one of the phrases as his brow furrowed.

“Huh,” he noted. Glancing up at the others, he added, “Well, I can’t read Latin, so-” Looking back down at the book, he attempted reading off the phrase. “Spiritus verberare-”

The second the words were uttered, the blue streaks in his hand suddenly lit up like lightning beneath the skin, a surge of power flowing into his fingertips. Catching him like an electric jolt, his eyes bulged and he suddenly shoved the book from his lap and jumped up as blue sparks sputtered from his fingertips. “OH-!”

Everyone stared, silent and wide-eyed as each of the sparks hit the ground and exploded in little bursts with faint popping sounds. Finally Tyler glanced over at Jack, who watched with a faint frown. “...Jack-?”

“My magic-if it can be called that-is healing. I don’t know anything about what Ethan’s got,” Jack replied automatically, his tone somewhat clipped.

Ethan gave his hand a shake, as if attempting to get the rest of the magical bursts off or maybe _out_ , before shaking his head. Mark watched as his friend opened and closed his hand a few times testingly. “Ethan, you okay? That didn’t...it didn’t hurt or anything?”

Ethan shook his head. “No,” he replied honestly. “It was just...just kind of surprising, I guess.” His eyes were still wide as he stared as his hand, then looked back at the book.

“Can any of us use it?” Felix wondered as he walked over, scooping up the book. His eyes flickered over to the next page, holding out a hand. “Infernus salo.” A long pause, broken when he gave a brief shake of his hand. “Infernus salo- _oh c’mon_ -”

“That’s weird,” Matthias pointed out, looking over at Ethan. “What makes you any different?”

“Maybe Felix is just saying it wrong,” J-Fred suggested with a shrug.

Ethan blinked a few times, then it clicked. “Ah! That dust upstairs-” he recalled. “That weird glowing dust stuff. The second I touched it, my hand got all weird while the dust went all dull and normal.”

“Where the hell did you guys _find_ all of this stuff anyway?” Felix wondered, looking around at everyone. Mark frowned.

“That is a very good question. You said all of this came from upstairs? What the hell did you all stumble into?”

Tyler made a face, glancing over at Ethan, then Cry, then the others before finally looking back to Mark. “You could probably call it the room of required awful,” he explained. At Mark and Felix’s looks, he shook his head. “It’s...not a very nice place to be.”

“There’s a room on the fourth floor,” Ken explained. “And then there was a hidden door that Cry and I got open. Everything inside there is a little confusing. And...worrisome.”

“Yeah, to say the least,” Tyler muttered in agreement. “Some of the stuff-a _lot_ of the stuff, actually-looks like duplicates of what we’ve brought in.” His brow furrowed. “To the point you’d think we’d all been here before.”

Mark frowned. “But we _haven’t_ ,” he reminded. “Maybe...coincidence? Maybe some other group in the past. The research-or what little was done, anyway- _did_ say something about disappearances on the premises, didn’t it?”

“Fuck man, we just brought _magic_ into the equation,” Felix pointed out. “At this point it almost feels like anything is on the table.”

“Magic or something else we just don’t understand,” Bryan noted, shaking his head.

“What else was brought down from the room?” Mark asked, looking back at everyone.

“Well...there was this,” Cry spoke up, lifting the mask. “...Something tells me it wasn’t brought in by a previous group.”

The room was filled with an uneasy silence for a moment before Ken spoke up. “Maybe...maybe it was a fan of your videos,” he tried, although he himself didn’t sound convinced of his own logic.

“Yeah man, I don’t think so,” Cry murmured.

“What’s that you’ve got in your hand?” Mark asked, motioning to Ken’s hands.

“Uh-the camcorders I mentioned,” Ken replied, lifting them up. “Two of them-”

“They _look_ just like mine-” Felix interrupted, heading over to check them out.

“Yeah, well-we’re actually pretty sure at least one of them _is_ yours,” Ken replied. “And no, it ain’t the one out in the hall. That one is still out there and rolling.”

As Felix fiddled with one of the cameras, he flipped the screen open, going from video to video with a frown of focus and confusion. “Yeah…” he muttered as he did, not even so much checking out most of the earlier videos than he was just glancing over the screenshots of them. “This is definitely mine. And _where_ did you find this one?”

“That’s the one we found upstairs,” Ken identified. “Again, we actually haven’t watched any of the footage on it yet.”

A flash of curiosity passed through the Swede’s eyes, finally reaching the video from the conference room, the one where he’d dropped the camcorder. When he flipped several videos over, his frown deepened. “Um-”

When he hit play, his own face popped up onto the screen.

_“Um-” Felix gave a weary sigh, running a hand back through his hair. “Alright, so here’s the story bros. Things aren’t looking very good at the moment, uh-so Mark’s arm is all fucked up. Ken’s dealing with a sprained ankle-”_

“Um, I’m...fine?” Ken cut in, but Felix held up a hand for silence.

 _“And Ethan is-ugh, Ethan did the thing and_ **_goddammit he should read the warning labels-_ ** _”_

“What?” Ethan wondered, staring at Felix before getting up entirely and walking over to join them. By this point the rest of the group had gathered, everyone except Jack and Cry (the latter of which still seemed to be catching his breath-and maybe having a quiet if not futile discussion with Jack?), hovering around as they tried to get a decent look at the tiny screen. “Wait a minute, what did I do-?”

“Hush,” Felix shushed.

_“And fuck if I know where everybody else is right now. I-” A pause, followed by, “I’m really not sure if Cry and Matthias are even alive at this point, to be honest. Last we saw them-”_

“This isn’t real…” J-Fred whispered, casting a worried look at his brother. “...Right? It’s not- _is it?_ ”

 _“What I do know at the moment is that nobody’s all that fit to fight or run and if those things find us-” He suddenly went silent and looked to something off-screen. A couple quiet words were heard from the other side of the direction he was looking in-Mark’s voice, although the words were too soft and from the mic to actually make out very well. What_ was _heard clearly, however, was a loud muffled_ **_thunk_ ** _, as if someone had just stomped their foot down. Felix turned his head to send Mark a quick, alarmed glance when there was a sudden loud crash-_

_The camera suddenly tumbled, coming to a rest on the floor as shouts from various people were heard. A body flew across its view, too quick to really get a good look at, but judging from the shoe on the foot left within view, they could tell for certain it was Ken._

_Ken and a trail of blood that streaked across the floor-_

_Everything went silent for a moment, broken only by the heavy footsteps that_ **_shook_ ** _the floor beneath the camera, causing the world to lightly vibrate in small, quick bursts._

_But then the screen suddenly flickered._

_Once. Twice._

_Then a voice close by, the speaker out of view but the accent-distorted as it was-as clear as day._

_“Around and around we go~”_

Jack’s head shot up upon hearing the accent, eyes a bit wide and seeming to recoil just slightly when he realized now that all eyes were on him.

“I-”

He shook his head, almost frantically. If there was any color in his cheeks before, it was completely gone now.

“That wasn’t me.”

“The hell it wasn’t-!” Matthias exclaimed, giving Jack a look. “It’s not the only video we’ve heard you saying something suspicious-!”

“Those videos aren’t _real!_ They obviously can’t be, cause last time I checked, nobody in here was dead-!”

“We just saw you _heal people’s injuries using magic!_ We don’t know your limitations on that, we don’t know _what_ you can do! For all we know, you can bring people right back from the dead-!”

“Woah, woah, hang on! Are we seriously suspecting Jack right now for...for all _this?!_ ” Ethan demanded, quickly moving between Matthias and Jack. “It’s like you just said, Jack just _healed_ us! Hell, he _saved me and Tyler-he got himself hurt leading one of those monsters_ away _from all of us_ . And now you’re suggesting-” He shook his head. “After all that, why would he go around _killing_ all of us?!”

“I don’t know! There's a _lot_ of things going on here that aren't making any sense! I would say to _ask him_ but he’s obviously not saying anything!” Matthias took a step closer to Ethan and Jack, adding, “What I _do_ know is that I’ve already had a vision, a-a _fake memory_ or whatever the hell it is-of finding my family _dead_.” He took another step, continuing, “I’ve already _seen_ two videos of people being killed and one of those seems to match up almost exactly with whatever happened right before the vision-and in _both_ videos we end up hearing Jack being weird- _no don’t tell me to calm down-!”_ The blond shot a look at some of the others that looked ready to step forward and shifted his stance a bit to get a look around Ethan at Jack.

Jack, who sat frozen with the book clutched to his chest, face white as a sheet but with lips pursed tightly together and an expression that was otherwise mostly unreadable. Mostly, except for the tiny tinge of distress that bled into it.

Jack, who remained unusually silent throughout the other man’s tangent.

“Matt, c’mon. I’m okay. Bryan’s okay, we’re both-we’re both fine,” J-Fred spoke up quietly.

“Yeah, _right now_ ,” Matthias countered, looking over at him. “But in the next hour? The next...few hours? If we’re _forced_ to leave this room or if something breaks in? You really think Felix and the others in the video would’ve just _forgotten_ to lock the door?” At everyone’s silence, he continued, “I can’t protect you guys like this. _I can’t protect my family like this._ ” His eyes swept the room, adding, “Or even my friends, for that matter.” His voice softened, some of the energy finally drained from it. “Not without knowing what the _hell_ is going on in this place. Or who we can even trust. And the _only_ person who actually has answers…” His eyes fell back on Jack before he continued. “The _only_ person who seems to even have a _clue_ about what’s happening isn’t talking.”

“Jack?” Felix spoke up, turning back to the Irishman, his face scrunched up in a frown. Not so much with anger, just...confusion. It was a face clearly troubled and now laced with just a hint of uncertainty, clearly unnerved by the other’s words. “You’re not...you’re not going to say anything about this?” At Jack’s continued silence, he added, “You know I want to defend you, I do, but-just- _say something-_ ”

Jack’s eyes flickered to Felix, then back to Matthias. “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter anymore,” he replied. His tone wasn’t just curt or blunt or flat now-rather, it had taken on an almost-eerie deadness, like all the life and hope had been sucked away. “I had hoped that there was still at least one tiny bit of possibility left in salvaging the situation. I was wrong. _Again_ , I was wrong.”

“Jack,” Cry finally spoke up, staring at the other next to him. His voice was as quiet and calm as ever, although now there were the barely-perceptible notes of urgency and worry weighing on it. “If you don’t tell them, _I_ will.”

At Jack’s continued silence, Cry finally let out a small sigh and turned to everybody else. “Guess that’s the go-ahead…” he murmured before raising his voice back to normal volume to address everybody else. “Guys? Jack’s been turning back time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugggh I'm not entirely sure I like this chapter. It's all over the place and a good chunk of the second half got rewritten at the last second-it feels so clunky. ...But the next couple chapters or so will be better and explain...well not everything but quite a bit. To the questions that don't get answered in those chapters, hints and foreshadowing and whatnot are still gonna be sprinkled throughout. Trust me on this, I have a plan! The Anti stuff is all gonna fit in and make sense eventually! ...Just-as I always say, all will be revealed in time. But in the meantime, for those next couple of chapters, hide your feels because shit's about to get real here. And also in the meantime, thanks to everyone for your support, really helps with getting this thing written and posted! And lemme know if your theories are panning out or not-or what your theories even are (were?)-I'm curious as to what you've all been suspecting. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	20. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just a heads up, the majority of this chapter and the next one are gonna be flashbacks. And I _really_ struggled with the decision on splitting this into two separate chapters and if so, where-but ultimately, two chapters is how this is gonna roll. And even _then_ , this chapter is a bit longer than normal. Ah well. All and all, formatting aside, prepare yourself with whatever because these next couple chapters are gonna get _dark_.

Everything was quiet for 5.8 seconds.

And then the room erupted with voices.

“Come again?”

“Cry, _what?_ ”

“What are you _talking about-?_ ”

“ _Jack?”_

_“Jack!”_

_“_ **_Jack!_ ** _”_

Jack’s face meanwhile remained unreadable, but every question, every call for his attention seemed to bring added tension to his features and posture, as if resisting a flinch each time. To be fair, it wasn’t as if he was admitting to it-

He wasn’t exactly denying it either.

And Cry wasn’t answering anybody’s questions either, instead he’d swiveled his face around to stare at Jack in silent question of his own. His face couldn’t be seen, but the intensity was enough to get his thoughts across to the other man. _Was I right? Is that it? Are you really-_

But finally it seemed like the questions were getting to be too much. Jack suddenly squeezed his eyes shut, as if the action would banish everyone around him from the room, or perhaps somehow make the walls he’d built around himself materialize into something solid, something tangible. Combined with the look of distress on his face, it was an easy concern of whether or not he was feeling _actual physical pain_ , a headache perhaps-

But then he finally opened his eyes.

Opened his eyes and _spoke_.

When he did, his tone was bitter, his gaze fixated on Cry. “You and that fuckin’ mask. Even after all this time, I still can’t figure out what the fuck is going on behind it.”

Cry shifted now, self-conscious with an aura of guilt that was easily picked up in his soft voice. “Sorry, man. I was gonna confront you about it later in private, but…”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait- _hold on_ -” Mark said, shaking his head and raising a hand. “ _Cry?_ When did you figure this out? How long have you...have you _known?_ ”

“I only just figured it out upstairs,” Cry admitted. “It was kinda just this crazy thought bouncing around in my head for a while, then it became a theory when we saw the all the duplicates and shit…and then I came down here and heard you guys down the hall. When I found the monster in the room with you guys, I realized it was starting to match up with a vision and-yeah.”

“Jack?” Felix pressed, taking a step forward. “So he’s...right? He’s seriously-I mean _-you’re turning back time?_ ”

Jack turned a hard look on Felix. “Maybe. So what if I am?” he replied.

“Just- _what? Jack-”_

“Oh, don’t you even start,” Jack mumbled. He shook his head, raising his voice as he looked around at everyone. Despite the hardness of his features, his look was betrayed by his eyes. Eyes that were half-maddened with desperation, with despair, with guilt and exhaustion. “Don’t _any of ye_ even start. Ye don’t-none of ye have any _idea_.”

* * *

  _Feet quickly made their way up the stairs as wide blue eyes flickered around in paranoia and alarm. His heart was hammering in his chest, his lungs trying to catch his breath. He could hear the blood drumming in his ears. He’d only just managed to break away from that monster after what had to have been five straight minutes of running at top speed and three flights of stairs minimum. When the attack came, everyone scattered. He barely knew where he was...he certainly didn’t know where anyone_ **_else_ ** _was now._

_“Mark?” he called out softly, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself as he scaled the next flight of stairs, testing doors each time. Some were locked, others just plain empty. Ugh, he wasn’t having any luck with this-and at this point he was almost positive he’d gone too high up. “Felix?”_

_It wasn’t until he got to the fourth floor that he found anything._

_“Ken?” he tried, wincing slightly at all the noise he was making and the lack of results-_

_And that’s when he heard a pained groan and a soft call. “Jack…?”_

_His eyes widened again and he hurried into the room to the right of the stairs. The fact that the door was partway open gave him brief pause, but he pushed all hesitation aside to slip inside and pull the door closed behind him._

_At first he didn’t see anything. He thought he might’ve just gone crazy, but-_

_And then that’s when he saw the blood._

_It was everywhere. Pooling across the floor, spattered against the wall. He stood frozen for a moment, pale, not completely sure how the hell he_ **_missed_ ** _it at first. The sight, the...the smell. Swallowing hard, he walked further into the room to get a look around the dresser-_

_His breath caught._

_“_ **_Cry!_ ** _”_

_As he rushed forward, his foot slipped, his hands flying out to catch himself. They did, but at the same time, hands splashed in the blood beneath him, spattering onto his shirt, covering his palms. He inhaled sharply, trying to push away the spike of panic that shot through him as he righted himself again and rushed the rest of the way to Cry’s side._

_The masked man had managed to wedge himself in a corner between the wall and the dresser although some of his limbs were twisted at weird angles, mangled, bleeding from his abdomen, from his leg, his arm, his shoulder, his hood had been yanked down,_ **_oh god_ ** _he was bleeding from his head too-_

_Although he still couldn’t see the man’s face (though the mask was cracked and crumbled in several places at this point), he figured Cry must’ve briefly blacked out on his way over because he let out a soft moan and attempted to adjust his position just a little bit as if recently roused, then lifted his head to look up as Jack kneeled in front of him. When he spoke, it was barely more than a raspy whisper._

_“H...hey. ‘Sup, Jack?”_

_“Oh-oh, holy_ **_fuck_ ** _, Cry-!” Jack exclaimed, his breathing picking up again as his eyes darted from one injury to another, unsure what to even_ **_begin_ ** _addressing first. But even if he knew what, what the fuck was he supposed to use for bandages? For stitches? For...for_ **_anything?_ ** _He didn’t have any medical equipment, he didn’t have anything he could use in substitution-_

_As Cry stared at him for a moment, he finally let out a hopeless chuckle that made the Irishman feel like someone had violently twisted his heart in his chest. “Heheh...that bad, huh?” When Jack didn’t reply, he continued, “Yeah, I had kinda figured it was-”_

_Jack snapped out of his spell, shaking his head fiercely. “No, nonononono-” he replied, taking several breaths in an attempt to stabilize his rising panic. “You’re going to be fine. You’re going to be fine, Cry-”_

_“Jack, I...I can’t move,” Cry interrupted, his voice a breathy whisper from bitter humor and...and oh god what sounded like the beginning of crying. Like an attempted brave smile through tears, he could only imagine, oh god- “Man-I can barely feel my limbs right now. But I mean-hey-at least it’s past the point of pain, right?”_

_Everything was starting to become blurry. Jack took off his glasses and reached a palm up to wipe rapidly-forming tears away-but when he pulled his hand back, he gasped, realizing_ **_fuck_ ** _they were all covered in blood-_

_“Hey-oh geez-well now you really look ready for battle. Warpaint and everything. You’ve got this,” Cry chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood even a little bit. “C’mon, man. Don’t let the last thing I see be your crying face.”_

_The bravado was enough to bring a weak if not forced smile to Jack’s lips. The Irishman looked away as he joined in the chuckling, even if it was choked by an increasingly-tightened throat and chest._

_“Haha-see? That’s better.” Cry’s voice sounded vaguely comforted, triumphant even. But then he was silent for a bit, sending a jolt of alarm through Jack._

_“Cry?!”_

_“Ah-yeah, sorry, um-I-I guess I spaced for a minute-” Cry managed the tiniest shake of his head, pulling in a small sniffle. His words were starting to sound increasingly slurred at this point. “Hey, Jack?”_

_“Yeah?” Jack croaked out._

_“There’s more than one monster in this house.”_

_Jack’s eyes widened at the new information._

_“Wha-”_

_“Yeah…” Cry paused, then added, “You did lock the door, didn’t you?”_

_Fuck. No. But at the moment Jack didn’t...he wasn’t about to get up in case Cry-_

_“Y-yeah. Of course I did. What kind of idiot do you take me for?” Jack lied, forcing a smile in his best attempt of reassurance._

_Cry paused, seeming to determine something for a moment, then, “You know, Jack...I’m pretty good with masks. Like, really, really good. And yours…” He chuckled, this time harder than before. “Yours is shit-”_

_This actually_ **_did_ ** _bring a chuckle to the Irishman, a real one, although one that was mixed with sadness and panic and_ **_oh god what was he going to do and-_ **

_But his chuckle and Cry’s was cut short when the latter’s devolved into a rough cough, followed by a barely-audible, “Ugh, gross.”_

_He could only assume blood had come up and was now all over the interior of the mask and oh, try not to think about it-_

_“Cry-” he started, but was interrupted by the other._

_“Also, I uh...I think I might’ve found a thing. I think it’s still in my hand, if you could just…”_

_Jack reached forward, pulling a rolled-up and wrinkled piece of paper from Cry’s hand. It was all smudged and stained with blood but still legible, a four-digit code-_

_“The, uh, panel over there? I think this is what it goes to…” And then Cry abruptly went silent again, only brought back by Jack’s hand on his shoulder._

_“I’ll give it a try,” Jack assured him. “We’re going to get out. We’re all going to get out together-”_

_“Yeah…” Cry replied faintly. “Not gonna happen, man.” After a second, he added, “Jack, I want you to promise me something.”_

_“Wha-of course,” Jack replied, barely keeping his voice steady. “Of course, anything.”_

_“I don’t want Felix finding out about this. Or...Ken or...Mark or…well, anyone, really. Don’t let them know you found me like this. Don’t let them know I’m…” Cry tried sucking in another breath, but this time it came out another cough. “If they know they’ll get distracted-” He paused. “I want them to get out. I want_ **_you_ ** _to get out with everyone else. And then once you are all out, if you could...if you could just let my mom know what happened and...and my family and-” He attempted to clear his throat, but it didn’t quite come out so well, to say the least. “Promise me, Jack.”_

_Jack nodded shakily. “I-I will,” he replied. His voice didn’t come out so steady this time though. “I will! Cry, don’t die-” But as his eyes dropped to quickly examine the rest of Cry’s figure, he suddenly realized the other’s chest wasn’t moving, that he couldn’t hear breathing or coughing or his voice anymore or-_

_“Cry, don’t die!_ **_Don’t die!_ ** _” The Irishman brought trembling hands up to his face, almost covering his mouth but not quite reaching. “Ohhh god, nonononono- No, no, no-” He was feeling dizzy, light-headed as panic surged through him, a sob wrenching from his throat. “Cry-_ **_CRY!_ ** _”_

* * *

 “Nobody remembers. Nobody _ever fuckin’ remembers_.”

* * *

  _“Tyler!” Mark’s voice rang out as the two rushed forward to the fallen. Mark immediately stopped by Tyler’s side-he was closest, lying on the floor with a deep gouge through his middle-while Jack went on past him, rushing to Ethan’s side. The blue-haired man was leaning back against the wall and looked fine-at first glance. But his breath was coming out shaky and rattled and peeking around over his shoulder Jack could see that red had blossomed out over the back of his shirt._

_“Hey, Mark,” Tyler mumbled as Mark started to prop him up, froze, then settled him back down on the floor upon noticing the increased bloodflow from his wound otherwise. “It’s about time you idiots got here.”_

_“Yeah, that’s us alright. Big, dumb idiots,” Mark replied, blinking rapidly. “No more idiots than you though. What were you guys thinking, trying this on your own?”_

_“Sorry, I...guess we got excited,” Tyler muttered._

_“Yeah, we really thought we had it this time,” Ethan spoke up, although the attempt only earned him a bloody cough._

_“Ethan, don’t talk,” Jack muttered, feeling that familiar twisting of his insides._

_“It’s not the right-the right key-” Ethan continued before his words were choked off by more coughing, increasingly violent this time._

_“Maybe it’ll work to that door upstairs though? You know, the one behind the...behind the panel?” Tyler suggested._

_“I-maybe?” Mark replied, his voice strained. He looked up at Jack. “Jack, the first aid kit-”_

_“Felix has it-”_

_Mark swore softly, looking around frantically for something that could be used in its stead. But they were just in the foyer, there was nothing...nothing in the immediate vicinity-_

_“Okay. Then we’ll make a run to the bathroom to grab some towels-”_

_Tyler grabbed Mark’s wrist, giving his head a tiny shake as he stared up at him. “Don’t,” he replied softly. “Mark, we’re not going to make it out of here. You know this-”_

_His words were interrupted by a sob from Mark. “Don’t you fucking dare!” Mark argued. “Don’t you dare just clock out!”_

_Jack watched the two bicker for a bit before swallowing hard and turning his attention away, back to Ethan._

_“And what about you?” he asked softly, unable to keep himself from sniffling. “Can I...can I get you anything?”_

_“The key?” Ethan managed, though the action spilled more blood from his lips. “You guys are probably gonna need-”_

_“Yeah, yeah, I got you,” Jack cut off softly, reaching out to give his shoulder a squeeze in whatever comfort he could manage. “Where is it?”_

_“Not sure...think it got dropped,” Ethan mumbled._

_Jack let his hand slip away as he slowly rose to his feet to look around. There was blood everywhere but-but not nearly as much as there was with Cry. It didn’t take him much time to find the key lying by the door, which he walked over and reached down to pick up, then made his way back over to Ethan. He knew the other’s eyes were on him the whole time, because when he knelt back down next to him, the blunette let out a soft, bitter laugh._

_“Man, and we were_ **_so close_ ** _,” Ethan coughed out._

_“If you guys could just hold on a little while longer-” Jack tried, attempting to remain optimistic in spite of himself, in spite of realism getting in the way._

_“Jack-c’mon, man, I can...I can barely breathe-” Ethan pointed out, but his words were drowned in thick coughs._

_Jack attempted a smile through his tears. “Then stop talking, you...you idiot-”_

_“I can’t help it-” Ethan managed with a grin through his tears. “After all, I’m a loud, blue boy.”_

_Jack looked away. He told himself he wasn't going to cry. He told himself he was going to be strong. But at those words, he could feel his resolve crumble._

_“Jack,” Tyler called over softly, grabbing the Irishman’s attention. He nodded slightly to Mark. “Keep him out of trouble-since I can’t anymore. You...you know how he is. Get him out of this place-”_

_It was at that second Jack heard a rattling exhale beside him, like someone blowing bubbles in a straw. Looking over at Ethan, his stomach dropped upon realizing the other had stopped breathing entirely._

_“Ethan…” he whispered._

_“Ethan!” Mark exclaimed, jumping up and running over to his side. “Oh god-oh god, no, Ethan-”_

_“_ **_Jack_ ** _,” Tyler said again, trying to keep him on task-although a look at the taller man revealed that he was struggling to remain focused as well. “Promise me.”_

_Jack stared, remembering the same words from Cry. Remembering how much he’d wanted everyone else to get out, seeing now just how much they were completely and utterly failing at that._

_He was already failing Cry…_

_And now…_

_In spite of his reservations, he nodded. After all, what else could he do? Just deny the final wishes of a dying friend? “Of course,” he replied, rising to his feet with a wobble and heading over to Tyler’s side. Now that he was closer he could see just how much blood had flowed out-oh-no-_

_“Of course,” he said again, his voice hoarse as he knelt down next to Tyler. “I promise. We’re_ **_all_ ** _going to get out of here. All of us, just...just hang in there, you’ll see-”_

_“Yeah. I wish,” Tyler whispered._

_As if death had slowly pulled an invisible blanket up over his body, Jack could see him slowly go limp and heavy and his eyes glaze over._

_His hands gripped each end of the key, letting out a shaky breath of his own and about doubling over. His ears were ringing with shock and silence, the only thing that seemed to break it was the sound of Mark’s sobbing and his own-_

* * *

 “But _I_ do. Just how horrifically _wrong_ things went. Because the first time we were here, all this shit happened.”

* * *

  _“Matt, we can still get you out of here,” Jack pleaded. “C’mon, your wounds really aren’t that bad-”_

_“I’d just end up slowing everybody down,” Matthias argued, gesturing to his leg, the deep gash along the calf oozing with blood. It wasn’t the only spot bleeding either, there was also a gash along his back, another across his shoulder. It was staining the white piano he leaned against, perched in the seat. “Besides, I’ve gotta stay here with my family. Someone’s gotta watch over them, right?”_

_Jack swallowed thickly, casting a gaze to the J-Fred and Bryan who lay limply on the ground by the piano. Not moving...not breathing-_

_“Matthias-” he began. “Joey and Bryan aren’t-they aren’t-”_

_“Yeah, I know,” Matthias replied softly, a defeated sigh issuing out as his eyes clouded with tears. He lifted his good arm, doing his best to wipe them away with the back of his hand. “I know, it’s too late-” He let out a shuddering breath. “I want to stay with them anyway. You have brothers, right? You know how it is.”_

_Jack stared at him, the remark was like a punch in the gut. “My brothers would want me to get out even if it meant leaving their bodies behind,” he replied softly. “I’m sure your brothers would want that too-”_

_“Yeah, I’m not arguing with you there,” Matthias agreed. “But even then, Jack...is that really what_ **_you’d_ ** _do?” At Jack’s silence, he continued, “Besides, they’d want everyone else getting out too. That’s not happening with this leg and…” He closed his eyes, mumbling, “God, I feel dizzy…”_

 _Jack shook his head, his mind frantically racing. “But-but...your wife. Your_ **_daughter_ ** _, Matt- You can’t just give up now-”_

_At this, Matthias looked away, swallowing hard and blinking rapidly. Jack could see he’d touched a nerve and-wasn’t sure if he regretted doing so or not._

_“Luna…” Matthias mumbled. He let out another sigh. “I was...I was really looking forward to watching her grow up-”_

_“And you still can, Matthias, just_ **_hang on_ ** _for just a while longer. I can’t have you giving up now.”_

_Matthias was silent for a while before finally speaking again. “Okay,” he relented. “A-alright. But I’m staying in here until you guys get the front door open.” Seeing Jack about ready to argue, he quickly continued, “Again, it’s not like I can really move anyway. Just-lock the door behind you when you head out, I’ll be fine.” Seeing Jack’s hesitation, he tried to offer him a reassuring look, but it was weak and already struggling not to falter. “This will go a lot better if you’re able to bring help. Don’t worry, I can manage for a short while.” He nodded. “For Amanda. For Luna.”_

_His words did their job and Jack nodded. “For Amanda and Luna,” he repeated softly, a swell of hope appearing on his face. He made his way over to the fallen, gingerly picking up the crossbow and arrows and tugging the gun away from a cold dead hand to pass over to Matthias, unable to look him in the eye. But as he did, he muttered, “Locked door and you should be safe. But just in case and since I don’t think you’re gonna be able to manage melee combat very well-”_

_“Yeah, thanks,” Matthias muttered, his hand closing around the gun and swallowing hard. “If anything manages to bust in, best I’m...that I’m armed for the challenge.”_

_Jack felt a knot of worry twist in his stomach as he stepped away and made his way across the room. He paused by the door, only stopping to cast one final look back at him. “I’ll be back soon. We’re coming back to get you and your brothers, just hold on.”_

_“Good luck…” Matthias muttered, letting his head drop back as Jack gave the lock to the open door a twist before shutting it behind him._

_He got about five steps when he froze, hearing a scraping sound coming from the room above and looking upwards. A crash in the room he’d just left made the floor_ **_shake_ ** _and caused him to whip around, quickly going for the door._

_“MATTHIAS!” he exclaimed. “MATT- MATT NO-” The crash was followed by several others as well as shouts and gunshots as Jack nearly dropped the book under one of his arms to struggle with the knob, unable to get it to turn. “No-no-no-oh god-…” Suddenly he heard nothing, no voices, no breathing-_

_Nothing except heavy footsteps in the next room. A hand grabbed his arm from behind, he almost lashed out before he saw it was Mark pulling him away. Jack couldn’t see his face but really wasn’t even trying to, still staring at the door until they fled down the stairs and it was out of view-_

* * *

 “And everybody died!”

* * *

  _“Yeah, I mean, we’re just gonna be a minute,” Felix replied with as casual a shrug as he could manage. “I’ve gotta finish making sure Ken’s all good to go anyway.”_

 _“Felix, we can’t be splitting up now, you’re_ **_not fine_ ** _. Neither of ye are-” Jack argued._

_“Hey, we just got down a shit ton of stairs, right? We wouldn’t be able to do that if we were on death’s door, right?” the Swede’s eyes turned to Ken, who chuckled weakly, his own breath ragged from the stab between his ribs._

_“Yep. Hey, don’t worry about us, we’ll meet up downstairs and then we’ll head out together. Besides, senpai’s with me, right? So of course we’re gonna be okay.”_

_Jack stared at Felix, who was holding his abdomen (shut? Oh god, please don’t say his own guts were threatening to spill out), whose chest and back were bleeding. It looked like he’d gotten into a fight with a hellcat-and then Ken, whose wound seemed to pour out more blood with every beat._

_“Look, even if we can’t make it down there to join you, you guys gotta get out anyway. I mean the others ain’t making it out so-” At Jack’s expression, Felix shook his head slightly. “Oh c’mon, Jack, you really think we didn’t already know? You don’t think...you don’t think we noticed Cry up there? We passed right by him. After all the video games we’ve played...even_ **_without_ ** _, hell man, a body’s still pretty obvious when it’s only covered with a blanket. Especially when there’s blood soaked through it…”_

_He shook his head again, switching focus again to continue what he was saying before distracted. “But anyway, yeah. So we’re clearly gonna need an ambulance,” Felix advised. “And maybe a SWAT team. And a nuclear strike. Hell, man, we just need to rain down hell on this place in general. But none of that’s gonna happen while everyone’s stuck in here.”_

_“In all seriousness,” Ken added, a sober expression on his face as he looked Jack in the eyes. “We_ **_finally_ ** _got the key out of this place. We had to fight tooth and nail to get it too, so...don’t let all of that be in vain. We’ll join up with you guys one way or another, don’t worry. But if you’re able to walk on out of this place...for the love of god, man,_ **_take it_ ** _.”_

_“And stop crying like a bitch, Jack, Jesus-” Felix chimed in, giving the Irishman a small smirk._

_Jack blinked, self-consciously reaching up to rub his eyes with the back of his hand. “You’re such an asshole!”_

_“And you’re an annoying potato whose voice is never hitting puberty-”_

_“Fuck you dude-!”_

_Felix smirked widely at this, then turned to Mark, who was making his way back into the room after checking the corridor. Although now that Jack looked, now that the adrenaline had worn off, he could see that the other man was walking with a noticeable limp. “Hey, Mark. You mind doing a quick trade?”_

_“Uh-” Mark swallowed, looking the two over. “Sure, for what?”_

_“Bandages for Flamey?”_

_“You know you don’t even have to trade to get it,” Mark mumbled, pulling out the hairspray and lighter to hand over, taking the roll of bandages Felix gave him in return._

_Jack frowned, looking from one to the other. “Are you sure you’re gonna have enough? We’ve already had to use so many-”_

_“We’ll be fine,” Felix interrupted._

_“Yeah, c’mon Jack. Quit worrying for us, I mean-for god’s sakes, we’ve got the flamethrower now!” Ken seconded._

_“Jack,” Mark suddenly spoke up, voice resolute. “We need to head on downstairs. The hallway’s clear but I don’t know how much longer it’s gonna be that way.”_

_“Uh-yeah, I-I guess-” Jack replied with a nervous swallow. Surely Felix and Ken were right. Surely nobody else was going to die. For god’s sakes, they’d finally gotten the key, escape was right there in front of them. They just had to take the last few steps to get there._

_“Oh, uh, Mark-” Ken spoke up, rummaging through his jeans pocket. “The key. Just in case…”_

_Mark stared at them for a moment before turning to Jack. “Jack, if you could check the hallway real quick one more time. I’d do it but this damn limp-”_

_Jack hesitated. “Uh-” His eyes darted back over to Felix and Ken, uncertain, but in spite of himself, he nodded. “Sure.”_

_As he headed out, he quietly closed the door behind him, taking steps down the corridor. His footsteps seemed so loud in the house now, the only other sounds being the muffled voices behind the door that faded with distance and the sound of rain still drumming on the house. Maybe it was just the lack of sleep at this point, the continuous adrenaline and ultimately nerves past the point of just frayed; maybe it was a brief gasp of air from the numbness and the haze of grief he’d started drowning in hours ago after watching so many of his friends fall, but he suddenly realized with a shock that part of the reason it seemed so quiet in here was because_ **_over half his friends were now dead_ ** _. They were the only occupants of this place, after all, aside from the monsters. The thought was dizzying, and as he reached the main hall of the second floor, reeling, he had to stop for a moment and lean against the wall to regain his bearings._

_“Fuck’s sake,” he whispered to himself. “Pull it together, Jackaboy. You’ve just...god…” He sucked in a breath, closing his eyes for just a second. “Just gotta pull it together. Just a little bit longer now.” Another breath. “Don’t freak out, Séan, just...don’t freak out just yet.”_

_The sound of a door closing snapped his attention to behind him, where he could see Mark heading over to him with an unreadable expression, bandages clutched tightly in his hand._

_“You got the key, Mark?”_

_Mark nodded, oddly silent. Jack frowned as he pushed himself from the wall, stepping closer._

_“...Mark-?”_

_“We need to get downstairs,” Mark interrupted, voice clipped and heavy. As a massive creak was heard on the staircase that led up to the third floor and succeeded in drawing both their eyes to it, he added, now with the addition of urgency, “_ **_Now_ ** _. Let’s go, Jack.”_

_“Uh-yeah-”_

* * *

 “Everybody died…” At this point Jack’s voice broke completely, coming out cracked and pitched. “...Except _me_.”

* * *

  _He wasn’t sure how long he stood out there, rain soaking through his clothes, dripping from his hair, blurring his glasses, chilling him enough on the outside to match the ice running through his veins at that moment. The only thing that stayed remotely dry was the book clutched in his arms and only because of the body that was hunched over it._

_He stood there for what felt like hours, shaking so bad that finally his legs gave out, dropping to his knees and rainwater saturating his lower jeans in any part that had somehow remained minimally damp._

_‘They’re gone.’_

_‘They’re all gone.’_

_‘And I-’_

_‘I failed everybody.’_

_‘_ **_Everybody-’_ **

_‘Everyone-’_

_‘Why am I-’_

_For a while, he wasn’t sure he could feel much of anything. The shock was numbing, his mind hyperfocusing on just that one string of thought. Why him? Why did any of this have to happen in the first place? Everyone was dead...oh god...everyone was dead except him and now he was all alone and no one was left and-and-_

_A sole warmth ran down his face and it took far longer than it should’ve for him to realize it came from his own tears. Upon realizing this with the reminder of just how completely alone he was now, he choked before completely breaking down into sobs._

_“Why me…” His voice barely came out in a whisper but was pitched and drowned in hysteria. He was babbling to himself but his words, his realization that he was even doing it was scarcely registering. “Why me why me why me_ **_oh god they’re all dead, they’re all-_ ** _”_

_He remained like this for some time, his body shaking even more violently than it was from pure undiluted shock now, staring down at the ground in front of him. The book was clutched tightly in both arms like a lifeline, a cold replacement for the comforting presence of another. There was nothing comforting about this, just a gnawing emptiness in his gut, a twisting, wrenching feeling of guilt with Mark’s last look at him burned into his memory-_

* * *

 “I was the only one left and I-I was all alone. Completely alone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blargh, I'm still really iffy on splitting these chapters because I know it interrupts the flow a bit. Kind of an awkward place to leave it. But the alternative was a 9k-word chapter and yeah I don't think so. But so this is the first part of it, the second part will be up on the next posting day and pick up directly from this point. More hints as to what is going on as a whole will start popping up, I promise! In the meantime, I'm absolutely amazed at all the support I've been getting for this fic. It really helps so much with getting this thing written and posted up. But so if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	21. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so continues what is essentially a two-part chapter. Enjoy~

“I was the only one left, I...I was all alone.”

* * *

  _A sudden creak drew his attention to the door in front of him, and as he saw it swing open, his blue eyes went wide at the sight of one of the monsters-the one at the start of this whole damn thing, to be precise. Instinctively he scrambled to his feet but practically tripped all over himself, slipping in the wet gravel as he half-staggered back. There was no way he’d be fast enough, he’d be meeting his end soon just like everyone else. For a split second there was the near-comforting and half-broken thought of ‘Well at least that’s the end of this nightmare. At least this is something I won’t have to live with. At least soon I’ll be with the others,’ when he skid to a stop and turned, seeing that the monster had indeed charged but-_

_But for some reason it had stopped._

_As if coming face to face with some sort of invisible wall, it just...stood there. Silent, staring out at him._

_Jack’s mouth dropped open, gaping at the creature for a moment before a rush of anger suddenly flared up within him._

_“WELL WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!” he suddenly screamed. “JUST END IT! YOU HAVE ME, WHY AREN’T YOU…” But as if promptly extinguished by the rain, his rage suddenly flickered out. He could feel despair creeping over him, wrapping around him, choking him like a cold blanket and a noose rolled into one. His legs felt weak again and he started to wobble, staring back at the creature that had started this whole mess. The monster that helped to kill so many of them, that had stolen Mark away right in front of him, that…_

_That stared out at him without any real comprehension of the situation._

_“Why won’t you just...why won’t you finish me off like the others?”_

* * *

 “And then _he_ came.”

* * *

  ** _“Because you won.”_**

_The accented voice snapped his attention to a spot next to the monster, staring at the figure. There were no real features, it was like the speaker was completely made out of shadow. But the figure was humanoid, close to his height and slender with a light curls on its head. The only features he could distinguish definitively was the piercing green eyes that seemed to be sizing him up and the mouth that spoke to him. It took a second to put his finger on the origin of the accent, but once he did-_

**_...Italian-_ **

_“I...won?” Jack croaked out, unable to come up with a wittier response._

**_“You. Won.”_ ** _The figure gave him a disparaging look as he took a step forward, seeming to size him up further._ **_“I don’t think there are any simpler terms to use-”_ **

_“What do you mean, ‘I won’?!” Jack snapped, suddenly gathering enough of his senses but not yet moving. The figure didn’t take any steps closer but merely gestured to the stone pedestals holding large vases on each side of the walkway._

**_“You reached base,”_ ** _the figure explained calmly._ **_“Once you cross that line, I can’t follow. I can’t follow, and neither can most of my monsters.”_ **

_“Those monsters...those monsters are yours…” Jack muttered in realization, taking in the scene as the reality began to sink in. “You were the one...you sent them after us-” Swaying again as the reality weighed upon him, he swallowed thickly. “This was all a fuckin’...this was all a_ **_game_ ** _to you, wasn’t it?”_

 _The figure was_ **_smiling_ ** _at him. Fucking_ **_smiling_ ** _, a pitying but sly look. He made a motion to the gate._ **_“It was. And unfortunately for me, you won.”_ ** _Shrugging, he added,_ **_“But I can admit my defeat when I see it. You’re free to go.”_ ** _Staring at the Irishman who stayed rooted in his place, staring back at him in disbelief, he urged,_ **_“What? Go on, the gate is right there-”_ **

_“You took them from me,” Jack managed, feeling increasingly dizzy with the realization and the torrent of emotions that was kicking up an internal storm. “You took them from me and...and...you took them from_ **_everyone_** _.” His voice was raising with each word, finally coming out in a shout. “HOW COULD YOU?! THEY HAD FAMILIES...SOME OF THEM HAD_ **_CHILDREN_ ** _FOR GOD’S SAKE AND YOU-”_

_The figure remained silent, listening to Jack. The silence and nonchalance of the other was enough to suck some of the energy and volume out of his voice, and very quickly his voice dropped again to broken and hoarse._

_“All for the sake of...of a fuckin’ game…” It was at this point Jack’s form swayed again, dangerously this time as shock now weighed heavier than gravity itself and now a wave of exhaustion washed over him._

* * *

 “ _He_ showed me how I could save everyone.”

* * *

_The pair and the monster remained in still silence for a long while before the figure finally broke the silence with a sigh, shrugging and glancing up towards the sky with relent and mock pity. His green eyes then dropped back down to Jack, staring him down._

**_“I’m up for another round if you are.”_ **

_His words pulled Jack’s eyes back toward him, the Irishman staring back at him in bewilderment._

_“What?”_

**_“I’m something of a completionist. And I’m not particularly pleased with the fact that I just lost to a boy whose only redeeming features are his fast feet and his ability to inspire self-sacrifice in others-”_ ** _At this, Jack tensed, putting all of his focus into the figure so his eyes wouldn’t drift toward the still-open door._ **_“So I’m up for another round.”_ ** _When the other seemed uncomprehending, the figure lifted a hand to point down at the book._ **_“Check the book.”_ **

_“The book?” Jack looked down at the book pressed tightly to his chest, remembering its very existence. “There’s nothing in here-”_

**_“Just do it.”_ **

_Obediently Jack lowered the book, flipping it open although uncertain what he was looking for._

**_“You see the clock, yes? The large one on the back cover?”_ **

_“Yes…” Jack started, flipping the pages until he was staring at the clock._

**_“What you have in your arms is a very special book. Do you know what it does?”_ **

_“It...has clues to the puzzles and shite in the mansion-”_

**_“Ah, that’s really only the the half of it.”_ ** _When Jack looked up at the figure, he saw it was now wearing a cheshire-like grin. It was almost as if it couldn’t help itself-_ **_“What that book can actually do with the right procedure and catalyst is turn back time.”_ **

_Jack’s eyes went wide with this information, but then his voice took on a flat tone, for a brief flicker almost forgetting the situation at hand. “You’re...you’re shittin’ me.”_

**_“And what reason would I have to do that?”_ ** _The figure smirked._ **_“Through processes of magic and science, that book has been modified to turn back time on command, so long as you do it right-”_ **

_“And-okay. Suppose that I believe you,” Jack interrupted, staring down at the book, then looking back up at the figure. “What-what does that have to do with you wanting to do another…” He cringed at the next word. “_ **_Game_ ** _?”_

 **_“Ah-ah, just another round of the game at hand,”_ ** _the figure corrected, wagging a finger at him._ **_“Another round would mean a return of all the pieces-”_ **

_“So you want me to…” Jack’s eyes dropped back down to the book, staring at the clock. “You want me to bring them all back.” He swallowed, blinking hard a few times at the thought, his heart leaping and racing at the prospect. “You’re saying that I..._ **_can_ ** _bring them all back.”_

 **_“The game is simple,”_ ** _the figure explained._ **_“If you can manage to get everyone out of the mansion alive and across the finish line, you win. You can reverse time as many times as you like, whenever you’d like-provided you have the right catalyst. But if my pets manage to catch you…”_ ** _He glanced over at the monster next to him, his grin widening. “_ **_You. Lose. Game over. Although whomever is left will, at least, get their next best shot at leaving this place alive, one last time…_ ** _” He shrugged, watching the Irishman._ **_“It’s win-win for you, at any rate. Sort of.”_ **

* * *

 “And how...how the hell could I just walk away from that?!”

* * *

  _Jack stared at him, processing all of this information. He...he had to be lying, this had to be some sort of trick. A last-ditch effort to kill him, perhaps._

_Still...what if it wasn’t?_

_What if he could…_

_If he could manage to_ **_save_ ** _everyone?_

_Body still shaking from shock and cold, throat aching from his earlier tears, he finally asked, “And-and how do I send myself back? What is the catalyst?”_

_If the figure could grin any wider, it just did._

**_“Blood of the dead.”_ **

_Those four words made Jack’s breath catch as he realized the implication. He wouldn’t be able to turn back time and change things to save himself if he did something stupid like fell or if he messed up somehow in general or-or-_

_He could only turn back time after one of his friends died._

_But-if he could turn back time...he could ensure that they never even made it to this place at all._

_Right?_

_His ringtone suddenly chimed out, the sound catching him by surprise and causing him to instinctively reach into his pocket. Here he could see that he had signal and on top of that, missed calls. First from Signe, then from Robin. Several texts from both, which a quick glance showed them issued out with increasing worry._

_And now the phone was ringing again, Signe this time. His eyes lingered on her picture, thumb hovering just above the screen as the music played away but unmoving further, frozen. Finally his thumb shifted, hitting ‘decline’-and as he did, he could feel his heart break. But if all of this went well...this would never even be a thing. Right? He should be back with her within minutes, all of his friends should be back with their loved ones or at least in relative safety and once he warned them…_

_Once he did, nobody would have to die._

* * *

 “How could I turn my back on everyone…”

* * *

  _He looked back up from the screen and pocketed the phone, noticing the figure staring at him, watching him with a laser-focus. Jack drew in a shuddering breath, nodding, but now with the spark of determination jumping to his blue eyes. “_ **_Fine._ ** _”_

_He could stop this before it ever even started._

_And even if he couldn’t...games. He could do games. After all, he was Jack-fucking-septiceye-right?_

_“_ **_Fine!_ ** _” Jack held up the book. “_ **_I’ll play your fuckin’ game! And I’ll get my friends out alive this time, all of them!_ ** _”_

 **_“Ah, that’s what I want to hear, Jackaboy,”_ ** _the figure replied with a glint in its green eyes, still grinning. He glanced over at his monster, suddenly turning to head back inside._ **_“In that case, you’ll be needing that blood-_ ** _” He cast a look at the doorway behind him._ **_“I believe your dear friend Mark is actually right here-or at least, what’s left of him-and you easily know the number of the dead. I’ll let the book explain the rest of the process. All of what’s provided should make it all easier for you.”_ ** _At the Irishman’s sickened expression, he smirked._ **_“And I’ll put my pets in their kennel as a gesture of goodwill for your time-turning...this time.”_ ** _Pausing as the monster headed past him and back into the mansion, he then added,_ **_“I look forward to seeing you on the other side.”_ **

* * *

 “ _How could I…_ ”

This time his voice came out shaky and pitched, feeling his breath hitch. His eyes remained laser-focused on the floor, as if memorizing every single grain in the wood. With every word there was a new crack in the walls he’d so carefully crafted to keep everyone out and unaware, to keep himself isolated. With every word he drew into himself, his arms tightened more and more around the book he kept pressed to his chest, clutching it as if it was his only friend in the world.

_Oh god they know now._

_Oh god I didn’t even give them details but they’re gonna find out-_

_They’re all gonna hate me-_

_But maybe they should I couldn’t even keep my fuckin’ promises and I wasted Mark’s sacrifice for this and now I keep putting them through all this pain and death and loss and SHITE over and over-_

_Or they’re all gonna die faster-_

_Protecting me or from locking me up a-_

_Oh god._

_Either way I fucked up. I fucked up I fucked up I fucked up they’re all gonna die again and it’s gonna be all my fault and-_

Arms wrapped tightly around him and he didn’t even know whose it was at this point but suddenly he was sobbing, unable to make out the soft words being uttered to him in hushed tones. At this point, his distant, impenetrable facade shattered, crumbled to dust and then some. And now somebody’s hand was on his shoulder and-and-

“I thought I could turn back time to the point where we were deciding on a house. I thought I could keep us all from ever setting **foot** in this fuckin’ place,” he choked out bitterly. “Turns out the furthest I can reach back to-and the _only_ point I can reach back to when the time turning gets activated, for that matter-is when we’re all getting into the car to head up to this place.”

* * *

  _“Hey! Earth to Potato Brain!”_

 _The tap on the back of his head was enough to rouse him from his stunned state. His first attempt at time-turning and_ **_shit he dove right in with scarcely any instructions_ ** _(that fucker straight-up_ **_lied_ ** _, the book was cryptic as all hell and actually provided very little on how to do this; the learning curve was steep as fuck and what was even navigating when everything around you was a terrifying swirling void of howling green mist) and everything at that point was pure, undiluted, disorienting chaos, but now, now he was simply standing by Felix’s car. Felix’s car at Felix’s house with a bit of dusky daylight still shining down though blocked out by the low-hanging overcast that’d been prevalent throughout the day. He quickly whipped around, seeing Felix_ \- **_Felix whole and intact and he was still alive and thank god-_ **

_“Felix…” he whispered, swallowing hard and blinking several times._

_“Uh-” Felix gave him a weird look, lifting his hand, palm up in a ‘wtf’ gesture. “Yeah? C’mon, hurry up, we gotta get this equipment to the mansion.” As he headed back into his house, his voice could be heard faintly commenting, “Seriously, Michael and the others are all fucking useless…”_

_Jack slowly looked down at his hands to find that they were holding_ **_camera equipment_ ** _-not a book. That his clothes were clean and tidy and not torn or bloody at all, to find that his own body was dry and had no scrapes or rusty red smears, that it was fine, everything was_ **_fine now_ ** _, everything that had happened in the mansion was now all so distant like a bad dream-_

_And then Felix’s words clicked._

_The color drained from his face as he lifted his head and turned in the direction Felix had headed in. “...Uh…” he began, but too late, Felix was already back inside._

_“Jack,” Tyler spoke up as he hauled a small crate to the car and fit it into the trunk. Giving the Irishman a sideways look, he asked, “You okay?”_

_“I…”_

_“Yeah, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. We’re not even at the mansion yet!” Ethan remarked, hurrying over to check for something in the trunk, then turn back to the door. “Yeah, spare lightbulbs are a go!”_

_Jack shook his head, only slightly at first but then more fervently. “I-_ **_no, guys, I-_ ** _”_

_“What’s going on out here?” Mark questioned as he stepped out of the house and headed over. Glancing over at Jack, he frowned at the other’s pallor, the wide blue eyes and overall expression. “Jack? You okay there, buddy?”_

_“_ **_Mark-_ ** _” Jack exclaimed, unconsciously glancing down at his own fingers as if expecting to see Mark’s blood on them but finding them clean._

_Mark’s frown deepened as he took a step closer, glancing over at Tyler._

_Tyler cleared his throat, giving Ethan a tap on the arm as he headed back inside. “C’mon, I think Felix needed help with some leftover...things, yeah…”_

_As the other two left, Mark eyed Jack. “Is everything alright?” he asked. “Jack, you look like you’ve seen a ghost-”_

_Jack blinked several more times, this time in an attempt to hold back tears. This drew even more concern from Mark, who turned Jack to face him fully. “Hey, hey...what’s wrong?” he asked quietly._

_“I…” Jack began, turning away briefly to set the camera equipment down in the trunk before moving to face Mark again. “Sorry, I guess I’m just...really happy to see ya right now, I guess.” He reached up to wipe his eyes, trying his best to keep his voice steady, normal. “To see everybody. Together. And...and okay-”_

_Mark’s expression turned to one of confusion. “Well..._ **_yeah_ ** _, I mean-none of Felix’s antics have gotten us killed yet.” He paused. “Or any of our own, I guess-” He shook his head, reaching back to scratch his neck. “Anyway, we need to hurry up and get everything packed up. I’ve already texted Cry to meet us there; he’s cool with helping us out, so-”_

_Jack’s eyes widened with sudden recognition and realization. He shook his head. “No!” he countered urgently. When all he got was a look of confusion, he continued, “You need to text him not to meet us there, to…” He looked back at the house, then back up at Mark. “We need to do this somewhere else.”_

_“Huh? What?” Mark frowned, staring at Jack like he’d grown a second head. “Jack, the livestream’s tomorrow-”_

_“Then we’ll do it at the Revelmode office-”_

_“What’s going on?” Felix asked as he walked up on the two, looking back and forth between them with confusion._

_Mark looked over at Felix with a helpless look. “So uh-Jack’s kinda pushing for a last minute change of plans. He’s suggesting we do this at the Revelmode office…?”_

_“What? Fuck that, I already paid the bank to rent the place out for a couple days,” Felix argued with a frown. “What’s this all about, Jack?”_

_Jack gaped at them for a moment, horror creeping into his veins. When he’d gotten the chance to turn back time, he’d planned to go much further back than this. He’d expected to get to a point where he wouldn’t have to argue the merits of not spending the night in a homicidal house with Felix and the others. But now here he was and he didn’t have any actual argument prepared, or at least nothing they would understand or remember or believe-_

_“That house is_ **_dangerous_ ** _,” he stressed. “If we use it, everyone’s gonna wind up_ **_dead_ ** _-”_

_“Woah, okay, I’m pretty sure the bank wouldn’t have rented it out to me if that was the case,” Felix assured. “Jesus, Jack. You been reading up on the lore a bit too much lately?”_

_“I haven’t!” Jack argued, a note of desperation starting to creep into his voice. “Felix, please, you have to trust me on this-!”_

_“Is this some kind of prank?” Felix questioned, glancing over at Mark. The American held up his hands and shook his head._

_“If it is, I’m not in on it,” he replied. But then his expression softened to a frown as he caught the expression on Jack’s face, turning to Felix. “Uh-but I am thinking something might be seriously wrong here-”_

_Jack nearly collapsed with relief. Of course, count on Mark to sense it, to take his side when he needed it most._ “ **_Thank you_ ** **-** ”

_“Why don’t you you and Ethan and Tyler go on ahead and get started and we’ll meet up-”_

_Jack’s eyes widened. “What?_ **_No! No you can’t-!_ ** _”_

_“Jack, man the fuck up, Jesus,” Felix grumbled as he headed back into the house._

_“Felix-!” Jack exclaimed, hurrying after him. As he did, he caught sight of something on the doorstep and froze. Hesitating, he slowly reached down with trembling fingers to pick up the object and flip through it. A hopeless noise caught in his throat when he realized, when any tiny lingering hope that it was all just something made up in his head and just too absurd to be real and that maybe he was just_ **_crazy_ ** _-when all of that was extinguished._

_It was the book-_

* * *

 “And it didn’t matter-didn’t...matter-what I did-” Jack continued. “It didn’t matter what order people came up here...how they came up here, who they came up here with… One way or another everyone...everyone would end up back here. And I _tried_...god knows, I tried so many fuckin’ times to...to convince ye all otherwise, to stop this before it started, to...to not come here at all. And nobody ever fuckin’ listened, nobody ever believed me, nobody…”

“Okay, well. After,” Felix questioned, and suddenly he realized the Swede was the one sitting next to him, the one with a hand on his shoulder. He was staring intently at Jack with worried eyes, but his voice was soft if not lightly scolding. “After we found out about the monsters, why didn’t you just _tell_ us? Why have you been running from us all night?”

“Because every time I was with ye guys, I couldn’t protect ye,” Jack replied, finally managing to get several deep breaths in to speak clearly for at least a couple minutes. But oh god, he knew this would happen. He knew as soon as the walls collapsed...he knew the second he spoke about it to anyone, the second he allowed himself to feel anything again…

How long had it been since he last allowed himself to cry?

How many cycles had it been since he allowed anyone to actually get close to him, physically or mentally?

Part of him was internally screaming at himself to stop, _stop_ , opening up to them was wrong, it was going to get them all killed. But it was already too late on all counts, he was almost sure of that now. Now that the dam had broke, there was no stopping everything that had been bottled up from pouring out. He’d just have to try not fucking up so badly in the next loop...or the next one...or the next one...

“I knew-or at least strongly guessed-who was being attacked and when and where from past experiences. I couldn’t...I couldn’t move freely when I was tied to a group. And normally when ye all find out my secret...ye all...ye all die faster…” At this point his knuckles were gripping the book so tightly that they’d gone white. “And often it’s from _protecting me_. And I don’t want...I don’t want...I don’t…” His voice broke again, unable to finish.

A stunned silence fell over everyone save the sound of Jack’s tears until a voice finally broke it. When it did, Jack realized that it was _Mark_ , Mark was the one who’d been hugging him all this time, and now he was shifting and pulling away slightly to get a better look at him. There were still questions on the American’s face as well as the lingering desire to press but...now? Now, also restraint.

“Séan,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry you’ve been going through that. And I’m sorry if it ever seems like we’ve all abandoned you at any point.” God, all of this made so much sense now. And he couldn’t even imagine how it must’ve been for Jack-not to just to experience all the horrors and death and whatnot but...but to be the only one to actually fully remember _everything._ To build up friendships, to have promises made to, to form bonds-and then for all of that to be ripped away over and over and to have any and all desperate warnings dismissed with disbelief when their memories were sealed away with each loop. No wonder-aside from what he’d just said-no _wonder_ he’d kept himself so walled off and distant from all of them. “I don’t really know the details of what happened the first time around or...or in any of the other time loops. But I can tell you for sure that in any loop, you were never meant to be alone.”

At this point another incoherent sob overtook the Irishman, he looked so small now, so helpless and so _hopeless_ , and Mark felt his heart breaking as pulled the other securely into his arms again and felt Jack rock a bit. And then there was the other part Jack had mentioned. He’d avoided telling them so that nobody would risk their life for him. So that nobody would protect him as he literally threw himself out there as a living shield for others, as he ran himself past the brink of collapse to lure the monsters away. It was no wonder he’d found the other passed out downstairs. How long ago had he given up entirely on self-preservation?

How long ago had he given up on getting _himself_ out alive?

Somewhere through the muffled sobs he heard the whimpered repeat of, “ _I can’t-I can’t-I can’t do this again I can’t-oh god I can’t-”_

Looking up to shoot a helpless look to Felix on the Irishman’s other side, he noticed the Swede’s face had grown resolute, surprisingly almost angry. But after a second it clicked: it wasn’t just anger, and what anger there was certainly wasn’t directed towards Jack. He knew how the two interacted, Jack was almost like a younger brother to him. If there was any anger, it was anger towards those monsters outside and whomever had damned Jack with this book in the first place. As he made eye contact, the blond’s expression softened a fraction as he pulled them away to look down and patted Jack’s shoulder.

“Hey. _Hey_ ,” Felix said firmly, enough to draw the green-haired man’s attention. “You’re not doing this again. You hear me?”

Jack’s mouth opened to reply, shut, repeated the process a few times as he tried to find a response. But finally he managed in a hoarse voice, “But I’m going to have to-”

“Goddammit, Jack, we ain’t dead _yet!”_ Felix interrupted, gesturing around to everyone. “Look around. We’re all together. We’re behind a locked door. We’re _safe_ and thanks to you, nobody’s even hurt anymore.” As Jack gazed out at everyone, Felix continued, “We’re all going to get out of here. Together. _Alive_.”

“Felix is right, Jack,” Ken spoke up. “We don’t even really need the key to get out of here-we just gotta stick it out for a couple of days at most.”

“The last cycle you saw us any of us die? That’s going to be the _last_ one,” Felix assured. “We’ll make sure of it.”

“But you’re going to have to open up to us a little bit more,” Tyler added, frowning slightly. “Let us know what exactly to expect-at least as far as you know-instead of just letting us go through all of this blind. Otherwise...yeah. Our chances of getting out of here alive aren’t gonna be as great.”

Jack stared at the group, conflicted and somewhat stunned.

“Jack,” Mark said quietly. “I get that you’ve been giving your all just to get us all out of here. But don’t forget about yourself. We’re not leaving without you too. I’m going to promise you that right now. And this is a promise that’s not going to change, no matter how many times the memory of it being spoken is forgotten.” Pausing for a moment, he decided to touch on something else he felt needed to be addressed. “And regardless of what happens, I don’t want you ever, _ever_ shutting yourself off from us again. I don’t want you to think you have to. Because even if we don’t seem to believe you at first, in time, we will. And when we do, we’re going to be right there with you. You don’t have to be alone again.”

“Of course, you’re not even going to have to go through that much again. We’re not going to forget,” Ethan added. “Because like Felix just said, we’re getting out of here this time. All of us, together.”

“Jack?” Cry asked softly. “I don’t mean to be a buzzkill or anything, but...just how many cycles have you gone through so far anyway? I mean-what loop are we all on?”

Jack was quiet for a moment before mumbling, “I don’t know.” His voice was small now, like that of a lost child. He hesitated before continuing after a long moment, “I...I lost count. After fifty-seven I lost count-” Another pause as everyone stared in shock and cold horror. “That...that was awhile ago. I think. I don’t...I don’t really remember, I…”

Shifting a bit to pull away from the Irishman, Mark eyed him to take in his ragged appearance. God only knew at this point-

“Aside from that point I found you passed out downstairs, when was the last time you slept?”

Jack’s mouth dropped open at the unexpected question, but he closed it again. “Last night, why?”

Mark shook his head. “I’m not talking about right now in this time loop, I’m talking about...cycles, I guess. Time loops.”

And Jack went silent, his expression distant with thought.

“Five…” he mumbled, seeming to silently count to himself. “No...eight…? Wait...maybe it was thirteen...”

The American stared as he watched his friend struggle. Yeah, now he definitely wasn’t surprised he’d seen Jack passed out downstairs like he was, and to top it off the panic attack, followed by the nervous breakdown he was having now. Maybe his body was physically rested and renewed at the beginning of each loop-was that how it worked? Probably, it wasn’t like he was injured or anything before they got here-but-if he still remembered all of the past loops-

So on top of everything he’d endured up to this point, now he was going on-what? Days? A week? Without getting any real sleep whatsoever. His mind had been going nonstop for...god only knew how long. Seeing the lost expression of the other man, he pursed his lips and frowned. “Alright, you’re getting some rest,” he said.

Jack blinked a few times, looking up at him, startled.

“What? No-Mark, I _can’t-_ ”

“Mark’s right,” Bryan seconded, making his way over. “You need to get some sleep.”

“But-”

“ _Now_ , Jack.” Bryan gave him his firmest dad look, to which Jack dropped his eyes back down to the floor.

“We’ll make sure everyone stays in this room while you’re resting,” Cry finally spoke up as he scooted to the foot of the bed. “And the door will be locked. That way we’ll all be together and safe so you won’t have to be anywhere else.”

“It ain’t like we got much else to do anyway,” Ken pointed out. “Again, people are gonna come for us either way if we just wait it out here long enough. But we’ve got a good several hours until we even hit _morning_. You may as well sleep. If we take this route, we’re in for a boring several hours.”

“But if there’s trouble anyway-”

“Then we’ll wake you up,” Cry replied simply with a shrug. “Really, there’s not gonna be much difference if you’re awake or asleep if we’re all staking it out in here.”

“But-”

“Goddammit, Jack, get some sleep already, for fuck’s sake,” Felix ordered. “Don’t make me pull a bedtime story out my ass. Because I probably will. I shall name it ‘The Adventures of Stefano and his Noble Steed Mr. Chair Kicking Monster Ass With Doctor Bookworm and his Zombie Friends’-” Satisfied when he heard Jack’s weak chuckle, he and the others shifted away to make space on the bed for Jack to lie down.

“Now just lie down...and rest…” Mark instructed softly. “Close your eyes. Everything’s going to be fine. Everything’s going to be fine. Everyone’s safe. We’re all going to get out of this together. Alive. Everyone’s going to be fine...”

A silence settled over the room, broken only by Mark’s murmuring and Jack’s occasional sniffle. In spite of the Irishman’s reservations, he was surprisingly out within minutes, his breathing soon deep and his body losing a fraction of its tension in the gift of blessed unconsciousness.

Felix eyed the man for a moment before suddenly whispering, “Jack. _Monsters._ ”

Jack shifted only slightly at this as Mark and several others shot the Swede a look. Felix returned it with an innocent one of his own.

“What? I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t faking it,” he defended.

“Right. Okay. So meeting. Now. We need to...we just need to process all of this,” Mark spoke up softly, getting up to move away from the bed. There was a weariness to his voice now, additionally weighed down with a tinge of guilt. “And start discussing what our final strategy is for getting everyone out of this place.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geez, these chapters just keep getting longer and longer. Uh-in seriousness though, it's actually a bit longer than the norm because this is roughly the second part to one chapter. The next chapter is admittedly gonna be somewhat shorter than usual, and then it's gonna pick back up to roughly normal after that. But yeah! Hopefully some questions have been answered while in the process of raising new ones. Just remember, in this mansion, not everything is as they seem. But those are all things to be addressed in future chapters. In the meantime, thanks so much for all the support so far, really helps wonders with writing and posting! And if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	22. Chapter 21

Everyone gathered on the other side of the room for the meeting. Voices were kept mostly low, mostly quiet. Nobody wanted to awaken the sleeping Irishman on the other side of the room. After everything they’d just learned, after what they’d heard and witnessed, a decent rest was the very least they could try and grant their exhausted friend.

“We still have a lot of questions,” Ken sighed softly as they all drew together in a group.

“We’ll ask them once Jack’s gotten some rest,” Mark assured. “Right now though, he’s barely even coherent.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t quite call him ‘stable’ right now,” Cry murmured softly. “But that said, I do believe everything he’s told us so far.”

“Yeah, I think that’s pretty much across the board,” J-Fred agreed, giving Matthias a sideways look. His older brother was meanwhile staring at the floor, a troubled look on his face that was tinged with guilt.

“Maybe we should focus on discussing our plans for the next few hours,” Tyler suggested with a sigh. “If the video told us anything for sure-and we can assume that it came from a past time loop-it’s that doors aren’t nearly as secure as we thought they were, even when locked.”

“Yeah, that or there’s another monster in this place we haven’t come across yet,” Ethan added quietly, remembering the one downstairs in the dojo.

“Or both,” Bryan suggested.

“The one with the huge claws alone was able to put a _hole_ through the other door,” Ken reminded. “You know, I doubt we’ve actually tested the limits of the monsters we already know of-at least in this cycle.”

Bryan frowned. “But why are we even finding things like the camcorders in the first place?” he wondered. “If Jack’s turning back time, shouldn’t everything else be reversed as well?”

“Maybe some things within the mansion get reversed,” Cry pointed out. “Namely people, but not, uh, dropped things, I guess? Stuff that’s just lying around?” He shook his head. “Anyway. As we’ve already seen again and again, time seems to be pretty screwed up throughout this place, and who the hell knows what the effects of that is as a whole. We’re probably straightening all that out as we go along breaking each of the clocks.”

“Which means that the visions are actual memories and not fake at all,” Ken sighed, frowning. “Kinda sounds like our memories to the loop gets sealed away in those clocks whenever time gets reversed-”

“Except for Jack’s,” Felix muttered.

“But then some of your visions…?” Mark questioned, frowning at Cry.

Cry appeared thoughtful before finally replying, “I’m sure they make more sense with more context. I’ll make sure to ask Jack about it later.” He paused before adding, “Probably what I _should’ve_ done from the beginning.”

“Well-anyway. If there are things that aren’t changing from previous cycles, we should probably bring them to the group whenever we find them. If they look like they might be able to tell us something about what happened in past attempts or help us out of here, at least,” Ken pointed out. “We should also probably start sharing visions. _Assuming_ , of course, that we might end up having to leave this room at some point before help comes.”

“Yeah, I _wish_ I could share the ones I’ve had already,” J-Fred admitted with a frown. “But I kinda pushed those away when I was under the impression they weren’t real. Now it’s hard to remember…”

“Yeah, same here,” Tyler muttered, frowning.

“Cry?” Mark asked, looking over at the masked man.

“Uh-” Cry paused for a moment, as if remembering back. Finally he replied, “I can still remember mine, but they’re hazy.”

“Considering how intense your experiences get, that’s what I kinda figured,” Mark agreed.

“And meanwhile I _still_ don’t see anything whenever a clock breaks,” Ethan pointed out. “Which is even _more_ confusing now that we know they’re actual memories from past loops. I _was_ here for them, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah, you were,” Tyler assured. “I’ve seen you in them, I can remember that much.”

“We’ll-we’ll figure it out,” Mark mumbled. “Maybe-” A look flashed through his eyes and he blinked. “Ah-!” He reached into his pocket and dug around a bit for a moment. “I just remembered, while we’re still on the topic of sharing things from past loops-there was something I found with Felix’s camera-”

He pulled out the charred piece of paper, holding it up. “I found this in the fireplace. It’s already partially burnt-up but there’s some writing on it. At first it didn’t make any sense because it’s _my_ handwriting, but…” He flipped the paper back around to read aloud. “ Found out what’s happening to _blank_ told me before that thing killed _blank_ now. No stopping him. Can’t _blank_ . Writing this as a reminder _blank_ save us _blank_ do not _blank_ -”

Everyone stared before Felix finally sighed. “Well ain’t that just fucking cryptic,” he remarked.

“Yeah, I don’t think that helps us very much,” Tyler muttered with a frown.

“There’s a lot of char and a lot of holes,” Mark agreed.

“Where did you say you found this?” J-Fred asked.

“In the conference room,” Mark replied. “Same place I found Felix’s camera. Uh-from this loop, anyway.” Looking around at everyone, he added, “Does anyone remember me writing a letter?”

A silence followed before Cry finally spoke up. “Uh-well-we can probably assume the person something is happening to is Jack. If not...Ethan, maybe?”

“Or you,” Felix pointed out. “If you’ve really been spacing as badly as I’m thinking from the visions. Not to mention that nosebleed you got out of the blue.”

“There’s something weird going on with the two of you,” Mark noted, his eyes flickering back and forth to Cry and Ethan. “And you’re _sure_ you don’t have any ideas as to what it could be?”

A silence followed before Ethan finally shrugged. “Uh, aside from me now being a wizard, apparently, not really.”

“We’ll keep the note in mind whenever we get more visions,” Cry assured. “And in the meantime just hope that none of us have already and forgot about it.”

A silence settled over for a few seconds before Ethan finally shook his head. “Right, so uh, plans.”

“Plans,” Tyler agreed, looking around at everyone.

“Well, it’s a big house,” Bryan pointed out hopefully. “And that’s the good news. It could actually be a while before our hideout is found.”

“The bad news is that it’s probably not big enough,” Mark pointed out. “And we’ve been using this hideout for a while.”

“We could relocate to one of the rooms in the front,” Ken suggested. “Altogether? That way we can keep watch out the window in case anyone pulls up to check on us.”

“That might not be such a bad idea,” J-Fred agreed.

“Yeah, but window or not, it’s not gonna buy us much time in terms of rooms getting checked,” Cry pointed out. “I mean, it’s still on the same floor and everything.”

“Well, should we try investigating further on downstairs? There was another door in the room I found Jack in,” Mark suggested.

“I’m not so sure that’s a great idea. We should wait until Jack’s gotten a bit of rest, then ask him if he knows of any place safe,” Tyler countered, shaking his head.

Cry was silent for several long moments before looking up and around at everyone. “...Well,” he suggested. “There might actually be cells in this place. The monsters might be able to tear wooden doors down, but steel bars could be another story entirely.”

Ethan made a face. “You really found _cells_ in this place?” he asked.

Cry shook his head. “I, uh, actually haven’t, but it did turn up in a couple of visions-”

“Wait, a _couple_ of visions?” Mark asked, giving the masked man a look. “I only remember the one.”

“I-” Cry sighed and held up a hand. “ _Again,_ I wanna talk to Jack about it first. I have some suspicions, but I just need some more details overall. Otherwise it’s gonna be another one of those things that’s probably gonna sound pretty bad without context.”

Mark frowned but let out a sigh. “Right…”

“So...worst comes to worst?” J-Fred asked, looking around as he reached up to scratch the back of his neck.

“Worst comes to worst, we uh-” Cry shook his head, albeit a bit helplessly. “I guess we try and find the cells. It’s not like we’ve really got much of a better plan.”

The group continued their discussion for a little while longer-mainly just running over any other potentials in terms of hiding places although ultimately to no real avail-before dispersing into their own little groups-or alone-for a break.

“So,” J-Fred said as he walked over to Matthias, sitting down next to him. In hindsight, they really could’ve picked a better room-aside from the desk chair and the bed and the armoire, there really weren’t many places to sit down except the floor. “You wanna talk about this whole…protective streak you’ve got going on?”

Matthias looked over at him, expression still troubled but softening a bit. “You’re my little brother. And Bryan’s practically our brother too, I mean-he is our brother-in-law,” he pointed out. “I’m _always_ gonna be protective of you guys.”

“Yeah, but-” J-Fred shifted a bit with a sigh, attempting to get comfortable on the hard wooden floor. “Bryan and I can look out for ourselves. We’re not kids, you know.”

“You’re always gonna be a kid to me,” Matthias countered as his look was replaced with a tiny smirk, earning a light chuckle from the other. But the look faded into a frown again. “Seriously though. You haven’t seen the other video, you didn’t...you didn’t have a vision I did. Or-any visions even _like_ the one I did? Unless you haven’t mentioned it-” He sighed, shifting a little. “It was so real and I…” He shook his head. “Up until I actually found you guys, I was like...90% sure you guys were dead. If I’d actually found you guys like I did in that one loop…”  His frown deepened. “Honestly I don’t know _what_ I’d do. The only reason I managed to stay even somewhat calm and hold onto that 10% of doubt until we found you was because Ken managed to keep a decent head and logic it out.”

“But you did find us alive,” J-Fred pointed out. “And we’re back with you now. So going off on Jack like that…? Going off on _anyone_ like that-”

“I know, I know, it just-” Matthias shook his head. “I was so relieved finding you two. But even then, I...I still can’t get those images out of my head. The evidence in the video pointed to Jack, I mean-after watching you two get _murdered_ , we heard his voice off-camera saying ‘four down’. I...figured the first two might’ve been Ethan and Tyler and maybe the speaker just didn’t know they’d survived. But then, maybe they didn’t in that loop, or maybe the speaker was referring to somebody else-” He reached up a hand to rub his temples. “But it was just like we heard in that video that had Felix and some of the others…”

He bit his lip as he thought about it before continuing. “But now we know-or at least we’re _pretty sure_ that it wasn’t Jack at all. Maybe?”

“That’s probably accurate, yeah,” J-Fred sighed. Giving Matthias a sideways look, he added, “But that should be a relief. Everyone’s okay and Jack’s probably relatively safe-” A hint of a frown weighed on his features as he added, “But something’s still bothering you.”

Matthias sucked in a breath. “Knowing now that what we’ve seen was real, that means you guys _did_ die in a past loop. I _found_ you guys dead. And I might’ve _seen_ that same implication but without the reassurance of finding you guys later-” Matthias’s own frown deepened. “Joey-I would’ve been on a warpath if that happened. And-and we saw what happened just _now,_ with knowledge that you guys were both still alive and well. If I was convinced Jack had gotten you both killed...if _anyone_ had gotten you both killed-”

“You think we might’ve hurt him in a past loop,” J-Fred concluded softly, looking over at Jack’s unmoving figure.

“I think _I_ might’ve hurt him in a past loop, at least,” Matthias corrected.

J-Fred shook his head. “I’m sure we’ve all been prone to that kind of anger at some point or another in the loops. And certainly mistrust-I mean-Matt-” J-Fred sighed. “You can’t go blaming yourself if that’s the case. There’s been trust issues going on ever since we _got_ here. Yeah, maybe you did go off on him in a past loop. You might also have an equal chance that you _defended_ Jack from someone else doing similar in another. But regardless of what happened, there’s nothing we can do about it. We don’t have control over what happened in past time loops, only this one. Right?”

Matthias was silent for a while but finally relented with a small nod. “Right,” he murmured.

“So in this time loop, we…?”

“Trust Jack. Yeah,” Matthias nodded. But then he shot J-Fred a look. “And not split up again-”

“Hey, speak for yourself,” J-Fred chuckled. “You’re the one who went off first with Ken.”

“Yeah, I know better this time.”

“But seriously. Trust _us_ too. You don’t have to constantly protect us.”

“What are we talking about?” Bryan asked as he moved to join the pow-wow and sat down with the two.

“Matthias is over here going on about protecting us,” J-Fred replied, shooting Bryan a grin.

“What? No man,” Bryan replied, looking at Matthias with a matching grin. “With _what weapon?_ ”

“I have a flamethrower.”

“You have a can of hairspray and a lighter.” Bryan grinned. “Besides, Felix has practically already _named_ the flamethrower. You know he’s taking it back once he remembers you have it, right?”

“Hey-hey-hey, it’s still dangerous. _Fine._ The crossbow, I was thinking,” Matthias replied, raising his eyebrows. “Or maybe the gun?”

“Oh, nono. I’ve got the crossbow,” Bryan countered, raising his own eyebrows. “I’m the better shot-”

“What-?”

“I’m the better shot,” Bryan repeated with a widening grin that bordered a smirk.

“Then the gun-”

“Nope. Dibs on the gun,” J-Fred countered. “Finders, keepers.”

“Then-hold on, what weapon do I get?”

“...Maybe Cry or Mark will lend you the knife.”

“A _knife?_ C’mon, guys-”

“We also found a baseball bat,” Bryan pointed out.

“Oh yeah-” J-Fred seconded, matching his smug look.

“What-why do I get the sucky weapons-?” Matthias cut in.

“Hey, looks like we might actually be protecting _Matt_ , Joey,” Bryan noted with amusement, now definitely smirking as he glanced over at J-Fred.

“Hey yeah, looks like that,” J-Fred agreed with equal amusement. “He _did_ mention he didn’t want us splitting up again. Like bodyguards-”

“Oh really?” Bryan glanced over at Matthias. “He should speak for himself-”

“ _Right?_ That’s what I said!”

“Okay, okay, guys, I get it,” Matthias relented, rolling his eyes but unable to keep a small smile off his own face. If they had decent weapons, they’d be better protected anyway-in the case that he couldn’t protect them directly. “Keep your weapons, let’s just make sure to find me something later on if we ever end up roaming this house again.”

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meh, so not the best chapter-and definitely much shorter than I'd normally have it. But I did enjoy writing the last bit-it was a nice change of pace having a relaxed moment between characters. And anyways, you guys can be assured that things are gonna pick up a lot in the next chapter in a rather unexpected way. I see some of you guys asking about Anti-oh, he's very much involved in all of this, I'm just not telling _how_ yet. But in the meantime, thanks so much for the support, really helps with all the writing and posting. And hopefully Camp NaNoWriMo's gonna help with giving an added boost, so we'll see how that all works out! But so if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	23. Chapter 22

The rain was pounding down hard, hammering on the rooftop of the car. Headlights cut through the darkness but it scarcely helped in the way of visibility as the windshield wipers struggled to keep up.

“Geez, I know it rains a lot in England, but seriously, this is nuts,” the driver muttered, peering through the rain as best he could. Just keeping sight of the road was a struggle at this point; they probably should’ve known better than to take this back country route. But their flight had already come in late and some sort of wreck had jammed up the main route. Even taking this alternate route to bypass it, it was gonna be a miracle if they made it to their hotel (or at this point, really _any_ hotel) before the lobby closed up.

The passenger shifted a bit as the rental’s GPS said something, but it was drowned out by the sound of the rain. Squinting at the glowing screen as brown eyes adjusted to the change in light, they flickered over the map and words. “Okay,” they said, raising their voice a bit above normal to be heard over the rain. “GPS says we have a left turn coming up in .4 kilometers. Uh-quarter of a mile.”

“Quarter of a mile?” the driver repeated with a frown, eyes flickering briefly to the left and seeing nothing but the solid line of woods. “There’s nothing but trees.”

The passenger shook her head and sat back, not noticing as the screen seemed to glitch for just a brief flicker. “That’s what the GPS is telling me.”

“Well…” the driver said softly, leaning forward a bit in an attempt to see slightly better up ahead. “I mean-” He paused, seeing a narrow break in the trees and a dirt road. “...Okay, I guess if you say so.”

He slowed, turning carefully onto the dirt road. The transition was easily felt under their tires, the comforting solidity of pavement shifting to the softness of mud. Just when they thought it couldn’t get much darker, now it was pressing in on all sides with the aid of the thick woods. When the driver spoke again, his voice held an edge of uncertainty.

“I’m... _really_ starting to doubt this is the right way,” he confessed as the car gave a couple of bumps from rocks and roots and god only knew what beneath them. “I think the GPS might be lying to us. Either way, this route is _really_ sketchy.”

“Not gonna argue with you there,” the passenger muttered, leaning forward a bit and twisting a little to get a more comprehensive look out the window. Letting out a tired sigh, she added, “Let’s _hope_ it is. I don’t think we’re gonna be able to get a room anywhere else this late at night-we’re gonna be lucky the lobby to the place we’re staying at is even open to let us check in.”

“Well-we’ll be alright,” the driver replied, glancing over at the woman to flash her a small, reassuring grin. Even if he wasn’t completely confident himself in his words. “I mean, worst comes to worst and this is the wrong way, we could just turn back.”

“And hope the lobby is still open for check-in.”

“...And that-” The car gave a sudden, unexpected shift, water spraying up lightly along the sides of their car. The driver turned his full attention back to the road, suddenly squinting up ahead when he noticed that there didn’t seem to be too much in the way of road anymore. Or at least-not directly in front of them? Rather, the ground was inky, cut through only by the headlights on their car.

“Uh-Matthew-?!”

“It’s just a big puddle, it’s fine,” the driver tried to reassure, noticing now that the passenger was now leaning forward a little in an attempt to see the road herself, eyes a bit wide with alarm.

“Um-” The passenger twisted in her seat again to get a decent look out the window before shaking her head. “I don’t think it’s fine. Matt, there’s water coming _halfway up the door-”_

“What?” Matthew asked, glancing over at her as alarm crept over his features now as well. Swivelling his head back around to face the front again, he now saw that indeed, the edge of the water was starting to creep just over the top of their hood. “Oh, _shoot_ -”

“Should we turn around?”

“I-I think the recommended thing is to just go straight on through it,” Matthew replied. “Besides, I don’t think this road is wide enough to turn around on-”

And that’s when the entire car rose and began to twist beyond its set path.

“ _Matthew-_ ”

“Yeah, I know-!”

“ _The car is floating-!”_

_“I know, Steph, I know!”_

As the driver glanced down at the floor while the passenger-Stephanie-quickly hit the light to get a better view of the interior, they could see that water was quickly starting to seep into the car.

There was a few second’s pause before Matthew shook his head. “We’re gonna have to evacuate.”

“You’re _sure?_ ” Stephanie asked apprehensively, watching as Matthew quickly twisted around in his seat to quickly grab a few things from the backpack behind them.

“ _No._ But the car is _sinking_ , Steph, I don’t think we’re gonna do so well staying in here, either.”

“...Point,” Stephanie agreed, clicking off her seatbelt. As she watched Matthew twist back around, she saw him quickly grab the ziplock of trail mix and shove several things into it-wallet, phone, passports.

He sighed as he pulled his hand away from his pocket, glancing mournfully back towards the trunk. “Really wish we could’ve salvaged our laptops…” he murmured before shaking his head.

“Ah-good idea-” she said, grabbing her own phone and wallet as quickly as possible to pass over to him before looking back up at him with brown eyes wide and full of nerves. “You ready?”

“Again, no-” Matthew cast a nervous look to the window as he shoved the ziplock into one of his jacket pockets and zipped it up. “But I don’t think we really have all that much of a choice. Let’s do this.”

Stephanie nodded, grabbing the handle to push it open…

Nothing.

“Just as I thought, the door’s not gonna open…” she murmured, rolling down the window. Thankfully it still worked-for now, at least. Reaching out for just a moment, she made a face as her fingertips brushed water (the surface was easily close to the window at this point) and gave Matthew a look of attempted bravado. Reaching out to catch Matthew’s hand and give it a quick squeeze, she then moved up and through to push herself out the window, giving out a startled yelp as the car shifted and tilted down in her direction and causing water to slosh and flow into the car through the passenger’s side. As she slid her body down into the water and pressed somewhat against the side of the car, she noticed that the water didn’t seem to be too terribly deep from a standing position-although still easily over a couple of feet. Enough to knock them over if they weren’t careful, especially with the now-noticed current tugging at her body. She leaned down and peered in through the window as best she could.

“Matt, come out on this side.”

“What-?” Matthew asked, shifting a bit as he was about to open his window.

“Come out through this side; there’s a current going in your direction.”

Matthew glanced back at his own window, then awkwardly crawled across the seat and out the window, slipping into the water. In the darkness of the night and the inky black around them, Stephanie could sense him shiver slightly and mouthed ‘right?’ to him as they clung to the side of the car.

“Okay. Current doesn’t feel _that_ bad,” Matthew called to her, now having to actually compete against the sound of the rain coming down around them. “I-I think we can probably work our way around the car and wade to land.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Stephanie agreed, beginning to follow as he edged around the car.

“Just follow my lead-”

“Following-”

They almost made it around the car without incident.

Almost.

And then suddenly Matthew’s eyes bulged in surprise as his foot plunged into the nothingness that was a pothole. His voice only managed to get out an incoherent yelp that was drowned out by an intense rumble of thunder, arms flailing as the current took advantage of his surprise and imbalance and swept him off his feet.

Stephanie’s eyes widened. “Matthew!” she exclaimed, hand reaching out to grab him as he was pulled away from the car and just beyond her grasp. “MATTHEW!”

“STE-” The other voice started as the night was suddenly lit up in a blast of lightning, causing the trees to loom ominously around them as black shadows, reflecting off the water they were in, illuminating Matthew flailing in a panic just a ways away. “STEPH!”

Stephanie glanced back at the car before pushing the rest of the way around it (being as careful as she could about the same pothole) and diving forward. Navigating as best as she could manage while also letting the current take her (stronger than she thought, now that she was away from the car), she struggled to close the gap between them.

A few feet never felt further.

“Matt-!” Water splashed up onto her face, cutting off her words as it filled her mouth and caused her to sputter and choke.

The water was muddy and full of debris and now that she was in the thick of it, it was hard to see, especially with the dark all around them. Another boom of thunder from above as she paused to just try and remain upright, searching the darkness almost frantically before catching sight of Matthew just up ahead. She didn’t waste any time, quickly plunging forward to close the distance and reach out for him. “ _Matthew-!”_

Fingers closed, missed, reached out further, closed again, this time caught fabric. Her other hand reached forward before the first one could slip, this time firmly gripping his arm.

She saw the other twist around and even in the darkness was able to catch his wide eyes.

 _“Swim, Matthew, we gotta swim!”_ she called, to which he nodded, still struggling somewhat to get himself back upright again. With her help he ultimately managed, and once the two were positioned decently enough, they took off through the water, pushing through the branches and forest refuse as they angled their trajectory towards muddy land while still going somewhat with the current. It was a good few minutes or so of struggle but finally with some effort, they managed to drag themselves out of the water, staggering heavily up onto the saturated shore, soaked and shivering. The two were silent aside from coughing and sputtering for a couple of minutes before Matthew finally twisted around to look back at the water and shake his head incredulously.

“ _Seriously,_ who puts a road across a river with _no bridge?”_ he demanded. “That’s just...that’s just poor design.” He paused, then added, “But...but clap and a half for survival. Oh my god. That was terrifying.”

There was no movement to do said clap and a half, but the unexpected remark was enough to draw a tiny, stunned chuckle from Stephanie, although a large part of it was just from the sheer disbelief that they’d managed to pull themselves out of that. As the rain hammered down around them, lightly stinging with each impact, she turned to Matthew. “Hey…” she began. Clearing her throat to speak a bit louder, she continued, “Hey, we...we need to find shelter. Or...or something.”

Matthew looked around the dark woods, wincing slightly. There wasn’t much to be seen out here though, all things considered. “We do,” he agreed softly. “The question is where to-” He shook his head, taking a few steps away from the water’s edge and feeling his soaking shoes sink into the mud. “Ugh, where even _are_ we?”

Stephanie stiffly rubbed her arms in a futile attempt to warm up, still shivering. Even without the rain coming down, it was still a good forty-five degrees or so in the late October night air. As she turned around in a slow circle to get a more comprehensive look at their surroundings, she froze when a loud _snap_ cracked out from about fifteen feet off.

Edging in closer to Matthew, she stared out into the darkness. “...Matthew?” she whispered.

Matthew was staring out towards the sound as well, features apprehensive, to say the least. “...Uh…” he began softly, hand going to his jacket pocket to slowly unzip it and fish out the plastic baggie.

He was going for one of the phones. Going for one of the phones for the flashlight on it.

Ultimately there was no need.

A light cut through the darkness, the headlights of the car that floated on by, and the couple froze upon seeing seeing a figure up ahead of them.

A somewhat _large_ figure, in fact, despite its semi-humanoid features.

The shadow made the fine details difficult to distinguish, but they could’ve sworn they saw large black pools staring back at them, long, blade-like fingers shifting just slightly as the light adjusted.

...And then the creature began making some kind of noise.

A high-pitched whine-

Even then, the three figures remained fairly still-two of them in wide-eyed terror-until the creature broke the spell with a small step in their direction. It’s at that point Matthew grabbed Stephanie’s arm. “ _Run!”_

Stephanie scarcely had time to process the advice before the two of them were suddenly running, tearing through the woods with the sound of snapping twigs and rapid rustling footsteps behind them. “What _is_ that thing-?!”

“I dunno!” Matthew replied, panting as they ran, the stiff, heavy fabric of their clothes and the slick mud beneath their feet threatening to slow them down.

The two were running alongside the water for the time being, it was the easiest way to go without getting even more lost. But as they ran, Matthew glanced around, suddenly reaching over to give Stephanie’s sleeve a quick tug and gesturing over toward a light in the distance. “L...light,” he pointed out between pants. “There’s a light. There’s a building.”

Stephanie turned her head to look over at the glowing lights of windows. Though it was...still _quite_ a ways, it was better than anything else they were really seeing so far.

“Yeah, got it,” she replied, glancing over her shoulder to see that _thing_ on their heels. “We’ve gotta-we’ve gotta lose that thing though-!” No other words needed to be said. Feeling Matthew’s hand wrap around her wrist, she let herself be tugged away from the water’s edge and deeper into the forest.

She wasn’t sure how long they’d been running or when it was they lost that thing on their tail. But after what seemed like an eternity she twisted around again, seeing no figure behind them, hearing no footsteps trailing after. Just as well-they’d started slowing down at this point, gasping for breath, hearts racing. The lights up ahead were growing nearer now though as they walked up the sloping ground. It was easy now to see how they’d caught sight of it from so far off: drawing closer revealed just how massive this building actually was. Five stories it looked like, at _least_ , sprawling out in an imposing structure.

“We lost it,” she announced in reassurance. “I...I think we lost it.”

“Thank god,” Matthew muttered.

And beyond that, not much else was said, the two walking in a sort of shivering shellshocked silence. “Hopefully there’s people at the house,” Stephanie finally said, breaking the stretch of quiet. “Hopefully they’re friendly.”

“With the way this night is going…” But Matthew shook his head, unwilling to jinx it. “A-at the moment I’d just appreciate some shelter. From both the storm _and_ the monsters.”

“You-you don’t really think that was a _monster_ though, do you?” Stephanie asked, eyeing him with a frown as the night lit up in a bright flash. “I mean-it had to have been a person or-or an animal-”

“Honestly, Steph, I don’t know _what_ that thing was,” Matthew confessed. “All I know is that I can go about the rest of our lives content that it somehow didn’t catch us.”

It was a little while later still when they finally came within view of the building, to which Matthew let out a small, wry chuckle. “Well. How about that,” he noted, gesturing to the dirt road leading up to the building. “I _told_ you the GPS was lying to us.”

“Matthew Patrick, if you start with an I-told-you-so now-” Stephanie began as her eyes swept the area. They soon came to rest on a small gathering of cars. “Oh hey, look,” she noted as they neared the gate. “There are cars here. So there’s probably people, right?”

“Well…” Matthew peered through the gate, eyeing the lit windows. The glow coming from them was undeniably inviting, promising dry warmth. “I mean, the lights _are_ on, so probably.”

“Guess we’ll give them a knock?” Stephanie suggested, opening the gate and heading up the gravel walkway to the cobblestone doorstep. Matthew followed behind, pausing momentarily to close the gate behind them before joining her.

As the two stopped on the doorstep, Stephanie searched briefly for a doorbell before giving up and knocking on the door. “Gee, you’d think a place this big would have a doorbell,” she noted.

As silence on the other side followed, Matthew muttered, “Yeah, or some kind of call button…” Giving a knock of his own on the door, he called, “Hello? Is anyone home?”

“Not entirely sure how anyone’s gonna hear if they’re anywhere in the house that’s not close to the door,” Stephanie muttered.

“ _Right?_ Something tells me they didn’t quite think the design to this place through,” Matthew agreed. After a silence, he turned to Stephanie. “...Well.”

Stephanie paused, frowning before reaching down and grasping the handle, giving it a twist. Surprisingly the door opened with an old _creak_ , the large foyer open and lit. She looked over at Matthew and met his wide eyes, matching her own as their eyebrows raised.

“...Um…” Matthew began. “Well-okay. Breaking and entering. Sure, why not?”

“Just taking a step inside to call out and see if anyone’s inside,” Stephanie explained, frowning. “I mean, it’s that or standing out in a dark forest in the rain _where there’s monsters_.”

“Hey, I’m not arguing,” Matthew assured as he followed her inside, looking around. “Let’s just-be sure to be careful, I guess.” Shaking his head, he added, “I mean, if there’s people living here, they’re people _willingly living in a place surrounded by monster-infested woods.”_

“Point,” Stephanie muttered as she looked around.

Not a sound to be heard, not a soul to be seen.

Matthew’s eyes swept the area as he took a couple extra steps forward. “Hello?” he called. “Hello, is anyone there?”

“Hello?” Stephanie chimed in as she closed the door behind them and followed. “We need help!”

“Yeah, our car got washed away-” Matthew added before turning to Stephanie and shaking his head with a sigh, pulling his hands back to hook thumbs on his belt loops. “Hm. Well, nobody’s answering.”

“Maybe they can’t hear us? I mean, this place _does_ look like it’s at least five stories,” Stephanie pointed out. She then added, “...If there are even any people here at all.” Turning to Matthew, she asked, “Well. What do you think we should do?”

Matthew glanced back at the door in thought, wincing slightly. “I don’t really like the idea of breaking and entering…” he confessed. “But uh, to be honest, I’m not exactly in a hurry to go rushing back out there.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Stephanie agreed, shaking her head with a sigh. “I guess, um-well, they’re probably not gonna have a landline, are they?”

Matthew frowned. “They might,” he mused. “I mean, we _are_ kind of out in the middle of nowhere. We can’t exactly check on our phones, but if I had to guess…” He shrugged. “This just doesn’t strike me as the kind of place that’s gonna have signal, or at least not _great_ signal.”

“Maybe?” Stephanie gave a shiver, finally tugging off her soaking-wet jacket. “I guess...either way-” Her words suddenly fell short as she stared off to her left, down the corridor. Matthew blinked.

“Steph?” he asked.

“I could’ve sworn I just saw movement down the hall.”

Matthew’s face scrunched up a bit in hesitation and worry. “A monster?”

“No-a person-” She frowned, starting to head down the corridor. As Matthew took off after her, he let his hands drop and shrugged off his own saturated jacket. “Hello?” Stephanie called up ahead.

“Hello?” Matthew joined in. He didn’t see anybody himself, but up ahead was a corner, so it probably made sense if the person had already turned it to go deeper into the house...right? “We just need a bit of help-?”

They didn’t get an answer in reply, but at least now they had a _direction_. Stephanie frowned lightly at the lack of reply as they tried to catch up with the person, but then muttered, “At least we now know for sure that there are people here. Hopefully they’re friendly and not like the people from Resident Evil 7 or anything,” Stephanie muttered as they moved to head down one of the halls.

“Steph, don’t make it creepy-” Matthew replied with a slight whine. “I’m sure the people living here are just decent people who-yeah you might be right, there’s totally gonna be ghosts or creepy little girls here.”

“Better than monsters.”

Pause. Then, “...Better than monsters.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two new victims have arrived and looks like things just got a bit more complicated. There is reason for all of this I swear. So Camp NaNoWriMo is in full swing and I'm using this for my project this month, so fingers crossed I'm gonna hit that goal again! In the meantime, thanks so much for all your support-it really helps with writing and posting this thing! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	24. Chapter 23

“Hey, everything alright?” Mark asked quietly as he moved to take a seat by Felix. Up to this point he’d been hanging around Tyler and Ethan, trying to get a better understanding of the book the latter found (since Jack certainly wasn’t letting any of them anywhere  _ near _ his, even in sleep-that became painfully obvious in a brief, half-hearted attempt not long after the meeting) and watching as the blue-haired man popped off a couple (fizzling) spells. But he’d noticed over that period that Felix had pulled the desk chair up to the foot of the bed, sitting mostly off on his own except for a brief conversation with Ken, who went over to join them afterward. Sitting down on the foot of the bed, he continued, “You barely said anything during the meeting.”

“Huh, what?” Felix looked over at Mark, a light frown on his face before he shook his head. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t  _ look _ fine,” Mark pointed out, now frowning himself. “What’s on your mind?”

Felix was silent for a minute, twisting a bit to look at Mark but then Jack behind him, eyes lingering moreso on the latter than the former. Finally he sighed, blue eyes flickering back up at the American.

“You’re right,” he confessed. “You’re right. I’m not fine, I’m  _ pissed _ . I mean, what the  _ fuck _ , man-”

Mark’s eyebrows raised. “Pissed at Jack or…?” He shook his head. “Sorry, you’re gonna have to clarify-”

“I mean- _ a little _ ,” Felix admitted. “Like-Jack should’ve come to us sooner. And I get it? Kinda, I  _ do _ . But what the  _ fuck _ -” He then sighed, lifting one of his hands palm-up. “We’re lucky we found him when we did- We’re lucky we didn’t find him  _ dead _ .”

Mark nodded in grim agreement. “But you said partly…”

Felix frowned, eyes on the floor for a moment before twisting around to look over at Mark. “Yeah. Only partly. Mostly I’m pissed at whoever it was that gave him that fucking book. I don’t know who the hell  _ he _ is or what his endgame is or what he’s capable of…” Felix shook his head. “I don’t  _ care _ . If we end up running into him-”

“Felix-”

“Mark.” Felix’s tone dropped to a quieter tone, firm and steady. His blue eyes were shining with an intensity that only came with anger. “If we end up running into him, I’m gonna kill him. Or at least, give him a serious ass-kicking. He took advantage of Jack when he  _ knew _ he was vulnerable. He had to have known this was going to happen. I mean-fifty-seven fucking times?! How  _ fucking dare he- _ ”

The conversation dropped off into silence as they heard a soft rustle behind Mark, both looking over to see that Jack had changed positions, flopped over onto his side with one hand in the other (albeit somewhat awkwardly with the book still wedged between his arms). That silence stretched on for about a minute or so when Mark finally sighed and turned back to Felix.

“Our number one priority is getting the hell out of here,” he reminded. “I’m just as pissed off about it as you are, but...if we really wanna help Jack-” He shook his head. “Besides. How many loops have we gotten killed going after... _ whoever _ it was that got Jack into this situation?”

“I’m not talking about going out of the way to hunt down whoever it is,” Felix pointed out. “Just-if we happen to run across him or anything-” He shook his head. “And something tells me we’re probably gonna. Sometime before the end of the night, we probably will.”

Mark frowned, then sighed again, running a hand back through his hair before letting it drop and considering something for a moment. “You know what would be the best revenge?”

Felix looked back up at him, a glimmer of curiosity entering his eyes. “What?”

“Once we’re all out of here, buying this house. Permanently.”

Felix’s jaw dropped for a second. “ _ Mark, what the fuck-” _

“And bulldozing it.”

The Swede fell silent for a long moment before a vengeful and satisfied smirk crept across his face. “...You know, Mark,” he said softly. “I like the way you think. I don’t think a bulldozer is going to be enough though. We’ll need something...bigger.”

“Something with explosions?” Mark suggested with a tiny grin of his own.

“Something like dynamite.” An added mischievousness was creeping into his once-hardened eyes now, showing the man Mark was a bit more familiar with. “We’ll let Jack push the button.”

“Oh, well of course, we  _ gotta _ ,” Mark agreed without missing a beat. “After all the shit he’s been through, it’s the  _ least _ we can do.” Leaning back a little bit and crossing his arms over his chest, he added a bit more softly with an added note of seriousness, “And once we do that, we’ll also be able to make sure: nobody else will ever become victim to this place ever again.”

A small grin now tugged at the corner of Felix’s mouth, eyes drifting across the room. Team Edge had drifted off to sleep a while back on the floor, using their backpacks for pillows-they  _ really _ needed to relocate to a better room to accommodate everyone. Although the trio had been reluctant and somewhat anxious about trying to get some rest, with everything brought to a mostly-quiet calm like this and the adrenaline in the room having worn off, it wasn’t long before reminders of their jetlag became obvious. They were out a lot sooner than expected, and in all honesty it was a surprise that Ken was still up and moving too-although from the looks of things, it probably wouldn’t be too long before he clocked out for some rest as well.

Well, fair enough. That was fine, that was still within the acceptable number of people to keep watch. Half of them were up and vigilant (well-he was pretty sure anyway-he was pretty sure Cry was still awake, even though he’d remained silent and off on his own and hadn’t really moved too much in the past while), which for the time being was probably plenty.

Thinking on how long they’d probably been in the room did make him somewhat restless though, and he soon found his hand drifting down to his pocket to pull out his phone. “What  _ time  _ is it anyway?” he muttered softly. Assuming time was still gonna be...righted...in this room, anyway. Assuming it’d been righted accurately enough to match the outside world to begin with after they broke the clock. His face scrunched up slightly upon realizing his pocket was empty, and he slowly rose to his feet to check both pockets.

Mark blinked at the sudden movement, watching curiously. “Felix?”

“Ugh, where  _ is _ it? Fuck,” Felix muttered softly, drawing brief flickers of attention from Ethan, Tyler and Ken and judging by the movement, also Cry (ha, he  _ knew _ he was still awake). Glancing over at Mark, he replied, “My phone. I know I had it in the armoire-” He paused, then shook his head, quietly crossing the room to check for it. After all, where  _ else _ would it be? Unlike everyone else in this place, he’d been mostly stationary since they got here.

Reaching the armoire and pulling open the door, he felt a twinge of relief despite his own rationalizations when he found the phone lying at the bottom. “Thank  _ fuck- _ ” he whispered as he picked it up, then raised his head.

He was silent for a moment, still as he blinked a few times, peering into the dimness of the armoire as if looking inside it for the first time. But staring straight at the back, now he wondered how the  _ hell _ he was in this thing for so long and never actually noticed it sooner-

“Guys, I think I found a secret door,” he announced. “I think-I think there might be a secret room or something.”

“What?” Ethan and Cry asked at about the same time as the former lowered his hand and the latter got up from his corner to walk over with Mark and join the Swede. As the three pairs of eyes peered into the armoire, they could now see that  _ yes _ , it actually looked like there was a pair of hinges on one side, but...a latch? A knob, a handle?

Felix frowned slightly, reaching forward to curiously give the back of the armoire a small push. “Maybe it’s just...the furniture that has the secret door,” he muttered. “In which case, this is probably gonna be fucking stupid.”

There was no give to it, triggering an exchange of glances between the three.

“...Maybe we should check, just to be sure,” Cry suggested. “If we could pull this forward a little bit so we could get a better look at the backing- _ quietly though _ -”

At this point everyone awake was gathered around it, to which Tyler and Ken moved forward to try and give the armoire a small lift, a nudge, anything-

After a second, Tyler removed his hands from the armoire and turned to them, shaking his head. “I don’t think this thing is moving.”

“Yeah-” Ken peered down at the feet of the armoire. “Looks like the thing’s been  _ nailed down _ .”

“Well that’s pretty weird,” Ethan pointed out softly as Cry meanwhile leaned inside, feeling around the interior of the armoire. As his hands slid across its surfaces and upward, it reached the brass bar of the rack above. Pausing, his fingers wrapped around the bar and tugged down. Feeling a little bit of give, he put a bit more force into it, tugging harder and feeling the bar come down a good couple inches on one end. A muffled ‘click’ issued out, the back gently opening partway as everybody stared.

Ethan was the one to finally break the silence.

“Should we…?”

The others looked back at him before Mark shook his head. “No. No, I don’t-” He glanced over at Jack with a frown. “We told Jack we wouldn’t leave this room until he was awake. Guys, we need to earn back his trust-”

“We could maybe wake him up,” Felix suggested with a small shrug. “As much as I really don’t want to, it’d probably be the best win-win-”

“Jack’s only gotten how much sleep at this point? An hour and a half to two hours?” Mark questioned.

“Well yeah, but I mean-still better than nothing-” Felix then shook his head. “Ugh, okay. How about this? We wake him up briefly, we ask what’s in the secret room and if it’s maybe safe enough to investigate. If he says it’s cool, we let him come with if he wants, if he says it ain’t good, we close it up and let him sleep a bit longer. Or choose to relocate to another room that doesn’t have any secret passages, either-or.”

“It might actually be our best option,” Cry pointed out quietly. “As much as I hate to say, it needs to be checked out and probably sooner than later. We all know from the video that this room isn’t anywhere near as safe as we’re pretending it to be.”

“And if the monsters know about it?” Mark questioned. “They probably do, I mean-they  _ live _ here, don’t they?”

“Yeah, but they normally don’t check hiding places,” Tyler countered. “Right?”

“Unless whoever else is in here is controlling them,” Felix seconded. He shook his head as he took a step back from the armoire. “Either way, investigating it shouldn’t be that long-”

His voice fell short, silent and staring at the main door with a frown. Noticing this, everyone else froze, save Tyler who took a single step towards Team Edge to wake them in case of emergency before going still as well.

Meeting eyes with Felix, Ken mouthed the question, “What is it?” to which the Swede quietly lifted a finger, head perked up and ears strained.

At first, all was heard was the soft, deep breathing of all those unconscious in the room. But then suddenly, although incredibly faint-

_ “Hello? Hello, is anyone there?” _

Everyone exchanged looks of confusion and alarm and hope, although the expression on Mark’s face was...bothered, to say the least. A frown was etched across his features, although he remained silent, as if trying to remember something.

_ “Hello? We need help!” _

At the sound of the second voice, Mark’s eyes suddenly bulged in realization. “Oh,  _ holy shit,” _ he suddenly whispered. “What are  _ they _ doing here?!”

“All that yelling is going to draw anything and everything straight to them,” Tyler muttered.

“Okay, as much as I hate to say it-” Mark winced a bit, looking over at Felix. “Now we don’t really  _ have _ a choice. Go ahead and wake up Jack. We’re gonna have to make a retrieval run, preferably before those two can get themselves lost too deep inside the house.”

Felix nodded, moving to wake up Jack while Tyler went over to wake up Team Edge. If they were going to do this, even with only part of the group, everyone needed to be conscious. They couldn’t afford to take any risks. Meanwhile Mark walked over to a few of the weapons they’d pulled. Although the katana was seriously tempting…

Although it  _ was _ , it seemed more so that others had already sort of laid claim over it and anyway, odds were he’d probably just end up hurting  _ himself _ before actually managing to hurt the monster. So instead his hand shifted, reaching down and wrapping securely around the metal baseball bat as he rose up and straightened. Turning, he could see that Jack didn’t take very long at all to wake up, although he still looked exceptionally alarmed and disoriented and exhausted all at once and  _ right _ , that’s how he found him downstairs.

Although Felix was trying to talk to him, it didn’t really seem to be clicking very well with the Irishman and Mark quickly realized why. So many realities, so many time loops, the poor guy probably had to struggle to remember which one he was even  _ in _ . So quickly heading over to join them, Mark reached over to put a hand on Jack’s shoulder to help ground him.

“Hey- _ hey. _ Jack?” The Irishman twisted around to look up at Mark, blinking a few times in incomprehension. “You just told us about what’s been going on before we had you get some rest, everyone’s together, everyone’s safe…”

There was a silence for a moment, Jack blinking a few more times before it seemed to click. “...Right,” he replied, looking around. “I...I remember now. What’s going on?”

“There’s people downstairs.”

Jack was immediately more upright, more alert, eyes doing an alarmed sweep over the room and seeming to silently count to himself as he did. But after a second he shook his head. “N-no, there shouldn’t be. Unless you’re hearing the owner to this place but-you said  _ people? _ ”

“Yeah, two, guy and a girl-”

“A  _ girl? _ ” Jack shook his head more fiercely now. “No, it-it couldn’t be a girl. That’s not a thing-it can’t  _ even _ be a thing-”

“Wait a minute-” Felix frowned. “Fifty-seven times and this has never happened?”

“ _ More _ than fifty-seven and- _ how late _ is it? Actually-doesn’t matter,  _ no _ , this has  _ never happened before. _ ” Jack’s eyes were a bit wide now, running a hand back through his hair to tug at the green strands. “Oh  _ god _ , what the fuck did I do?  _ How the fuck did this happen-?” _

“We’ll figure it out when we find the people downstairs. Hey-maybe it’s help,” Mark assured. “Anyway. We’re gonna go check it out, we just wanted to see if you were wanted to come along first-”

Jack shook his head. “No. No, I don’t- As much as I want to keep everyone together in one spot, a group of ten people is going to attract too much attention traveling together. Seven out of ten times, maybe-? I’d say that was the case. Um-” He moved to his feet with a brief sway but caught himself, shaking his head. Upon seeing his friends looked ready to argue and use this as evidence, he shook his head again and lifted a hand. “I-it’s okay, it’s just headrush.” He blinked hard a couple of times in an attempt to clear the bleariness of sleep from them, then turned back fully to face the others. “Okay, I’ll go check it out-”

“Alone? Yeah, no, that’s not happening-” Mark immediately said, taking a step closer.

“Mark, it’s okay,  _ I’m used to this- _ ”

“ _ Jack! Are we a team now or not?” _

Jack stared for a moment as he drew in a nervous, shaky breath. “Um-” He took a brief look around the room, looking back and forth and noticing several others were eyeing him. “Fine,” he relented. “ _ Fine _ , I’ll take some people along, but it’s not going to be you-”

“What-?”

“Uh-Felix, Ken and Tyler.” Jack looked over at Mark, body and expression braced in stubbornness. “It’s better not to do more than maybe four people or so at a time and some people need to hold down the fort in here-it’s either that or  _ I’m going alone _ .”

“Fine, deal,” Felix said quickly, looking around for a weapon. “Surprisingly I don’t really mind this at all-I’m kinda sick of this damn room.”

As Tyler grabbed the katana leaning against the door, he paused by Mark to give him some quiet assurance. “It’s okay, I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Yeah, but who’s going to keep an eye on  _ you?” _ Mark asked, unable to keep the worry from creeping into his voice.

“Jack, Felix and Ken are. Don’t worry, it’s going to be fine.”

“Uh, as much as I hate to point out, my weapons are a little bit...lacking…” Ken pointed out as he looked around before heading over to Bryan. “Bryan, mind if I borrow your crossbow?”

“Oh-yeah, here,” Bryan replied, passing the crossbow and arrows over to Ken. “Try and recover any stray arrows if you end up using it. We don’t have an infinite number of them.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, noted,” Ken promised as he got the weapon situated in his arms. Looking over at his other party members, he asked, “Everybody ready?”

“I-” Felix moved to take the flamethrower from a reluctant Matthias. “I’ve got Flamey back now. Yeah. Let’s do this.”

“Let’s do this,” Jack agreed, although with a voice that was weighed with more nerves. Heading over to the door, he paused for a moment to pull it open and poke his head out, glancing around, then looked back to the others with a small nod and a silent gesture to follow. The group of four headed out into the hallway, keeping their ears strained for any hint of noise whatsoever-be it monster or human or whatever else lurked in this place.

“So what’s the longest we’ve managed to survive a loop?” Tyler asked quietly, easily keeping pace with Jack.

The Irishman thought for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut as he searched into the hazy reaches of his memory before replying, “Eleven AM. I think. Which is actually...surprisingly longer than the first cycle. The first cycle ended at four but-” He frowned and shook his head. “And ever since the first cycle it’s varied, I mean, because I’ve been manipulating them around as best as possible to try and keep everybody  _ alive _ . People will occasionally react differently to these sorts of changes but generally if it’s similar enough, it’s at least still somewhat predictable. Uh-regardless though, these are all changes that  _ I’m _ making and fate that  _ I’m _ changing. For everyone. So I’ve generally been doing my best to keep track of it all-”

“So you should have an idea as to what’s going to happen next?”

Jack suddenly frowned, lowering his eyes somewhat. “That’s what I used to think,” he replied quietly. “And to a degree, I still do. But throughout the more recent cycles...less and less. Something’s changed.”

“Something being…?” Ken asked curiously.

Jack was silent for a bit before replying, “I’ll explain once we’re all back in the safe room. I don’t really want to have to go into it twice. Just-stick close and things should be fine.” After a pause, he then added, “But I can tell ye all for certain that yer not supposed to be hearing new voices anywhere in this house. Especially in these loops.”

“And the guy who showed you how to use the book…?” Felix pointed out.

Jack didn’t answer, purposefully ignoring the question. Rather, he shook his head. “Ye certainly shouldn’t be hearing a  _ girl _ in here, I can tell ye that much.”

“Well, at this point, they could be just about anywhere in this house,” Tyler murmured as he looked around, the group reaching the main second-floor hall.

“Maybe we should try the first floor,” Ken suggested. “If they’re new to this place-which they probably are-they might not wanna go too far from the door. It’s not like anyone’s just welcomed them in or anything.”

“We  _ hope _ ,” Jack murmured, remaining at least three paces ahead of the group as they headed down the stairs, down to the first floor below. “Again, just...stick close. For reasons.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit slow of a chapter but things are gonna start picking up in the next few. I'll only say that say the game has started to change now, as evidenced in the past couple chapters. In the meantime, thanks so much for all the support, really helps with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	25. Chapter 24

“Okay. So that door is locked,” Stephanie muttered as Matthew stepped away from the door in the left corridor. As his brown eyes met hers, she shrugged. “I don’t think the guy went through here anyway. Keep on going?”

Matthew seemed to consider for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah. Keep on going,” he agreed. The pair continued down the corridor, turning right to round a corner once they reached it. As they did, he peered up ahead. “Well. There’s two doors. Maybe one of them will actually be unlocked.”

Stephanie shivered. “We can hope. I can’t see where else the person would’ve gone to anyway; he’s gotta be behind one of these doors,” she noted.

“I really hope the people who live here aren’t gonna mind our little drip-trail we’ve got going on,” Matthew mused, glancing back at the little droplets of water that indeed left two narrow but steady trails from the front door to their current positions, more falling off them with each step.

“It can’t be helped,” Stephanie sighed, pushing aside some of the hair plastered across her face from her eyes. “If they make any sort of a fuss about it, we can get it up for them. I mean, considering the circumstances-”

“Breaking and entering-”

“It’s the least we can do.” As they neared the two doors, the pair relaxed somewhat with relief. “Oh thank god. I don’t see the person but these are some bathrooms.”

“Kinda weird…” Matthew agreed, looking around. His eyes settled back on the bathrooms. “Maybe we missed a door or...something…” He glanced back over his shoulder so his eyes could search for the presence of a door they might’ve missed, but then shook his head. “We’ll have to backtrack and double-check, I guess? But if we can stop for just a moment, hopefully they’ll have some towels we can borrow.” The two reached the end of the hall, turning into the bathroom on the right. Shutting the door behind them, Stephanie peeled off her shirt to squeegee out into the sink, followed shortly after by her hair as Matthew set his soaked jacket on the counter nearby and checked the cubbyholes for towels. A slight frown crossed his features as he drew a finger along the bottom of one of the upper cubbyholes. “...Huh.”

“What?” Stephanie asked, glancing back at him with some curiosity and concern. “What is it?”

“There’s a layer of dust all over this thing-” Matthew shook his head. “Maybe they just don’t clean around here all that much.” Although he sounded a bit unconvinced himself, the relief of their most recent find helped in his shrugging it off. Pulling a couple white rolled-up towels, he turned back to Stephanie, catching sight of the both of them in the mirror. Soaked, muddy, twigs and god knew what sticking out of their hair. He was more than thankful they’d managed to survive the ordeal without any serious injury but had they not found shelter, even with monsters aside, he imagined hypothermia would’ve easily been an issue they’d have to deal with in the cool October night. “Here…” he muttered, passing her one of the towels before pulling off his own shirt to squeegee out into the sink and patting himself somewhat dry with the towel, then rolling the shirt up in the towel and giving it a twist in hopes it’d soak up some of the water. As Stephanie shivered a bit underneath the towel, he reached for her shirt and another towel from the cubbyhole, doing similar. “There, now hopefully it should be a bit more dry. Probably still not much, but...” he muttered.

“Thanks,” Stephanie replied, drying herself off a bit more before picking her shirt back up to tug on. “Really wish we had a dryer right about now. Or a change of clothes.”

“Well I mean, we do, they’re probably just all in the water now,” Matthew replied, unable keep the cringe off his face as he remembered their drowned laptops. “Ugh, thank god we’ve got online backups. Still though-I mean, how are we gonna explain this to the rental office? My god…” He sighed, drawing a hand back through his own damp hair with fingers tangling in the strands.

“Well-act of god. Not too much we could’ve done, Matt,” Stephanie sighed. She peered into the mirror, pulling a couple leaves and twigs from her hair. “On the bright side, I mean...at least we’re out of there, at least we’re safe and okay…” She shook her head. “And we didn’t get caught by any monsters.”

“Yeah, now _that_ I’m still having trouble processing,” Matthew confessed as he pulled his own shirt back on, buttoning up the front. “I mean, if we hadn’t seen it ourselves…”

“Yeah, no, I know what you mean. That was like something straight outta _Until Dawn_.”

“Let’s just hope the rest of the night isn’t like that.”

“Ugh, tell me about it.”

There was a slight reluctance to pull themselves from the bathroom where they had access to dry towels and whatnot, but after a few minutes of patting themselves dry and squeegeeing out and whatnot (they’d use the sink to try and wash off some of the mud, but quickly found it wasn’t working too well), Stephanie turned to Matthew. “So,” she finally said. “Back to finding that person who was out walking around?”

“Find the person, yeah,” Matthew agreed.

Stephanie nodded, heading over to the door and pulling it open-

Only to come face-to-face with a giant, stocky, alien-esque monster.

Her eyes bulged and she immediately took a large step back, practically falling into Matthew with enough force to send them nearly staggering back. “WHAT IS THAT-?!”

“I-I DON’T KNOW-!” Matthew exclaimed. Seeing the monster raise a clawed hand, he acted on instinct, immediately grabbing Stephanie’s arm to yank her sharply back and drag her behind him.

“ _Matt-!_ ” Stephanie exclaimed as Matthew then lunged forward to try and shove the door shut. It all seemed to happen at once, in a flash. The monster stepped forward, blocking the door from being closed and swung the hand down and suddenly oh god blood was everywhere, dragged down from his shoulder to his chest. Matthew let out a cry of pain and staggered back again as Stephanie shrieked. “ _MATTHEW-!”_

Her eyes flashed around the bathroom. There wasn’t much room to get out, not with the monster blocking the door. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, scarcely anything to throw-at least scarcely anything that would do damage, anyway. Looking around frantically, her eyes finally settled on one of the towels on the counter. Oh, she was gonna hate this, she didn’t want to go anywhere _near_ that thing, but no other choice-

“Hey!” she exclaimed, and when the monster swung its deep, soulless black eyes toward her, she made sure she was ready. Dirty towel grasped in her hand, she stepped forward and around Matthew to fling it forward and upward and catch the thing in the face. The towel did its job, catching on its face and partway around its head. Now it was reaching up, trying to pull it off with angry hisses. Stephanie glanced back at Matthew and with a surge of adrenaline and desperation and scarcely a thought towards her own actions, she raised her foot with a slight twist of her body and shot it forward. The creature in its disorientation took a couple small steps backward, but its movement back was enough to set off an explosion of hope and determination within the other. Now able to grasp the doorframe on both sides, she did another kick to its middle, sending it just a couple more steps and _yes_ now there was enough of an opening and if they were fast enough maybe they could get through.

Turning to Matthew, she grasped his hand tightly and yanked him hard-probably harder than he should’ve been, but they needed to _move_ , the situation was desperate, _they only had seconds to escape and god forbid if that thing actually managed to_ **_catch_ ** _them-_

They managed to slip through the narrow space now between the doorway and the monster, ducking around it and racing down the hall, adrenaline pumping through their veins and giving them the extra boost needed. It wasn’t long before they rounded the corner, and slammed hard into-something. Someone? _Someones_.

There was was first a small commotion of surprised sounds, disorientation and alarm all around. But then, “ _What the fuck-MatPat? Stephanie?_ **_What?!_** _”_

And it didn’t take long to realize that the speaker was none other than the king of youtube himself, Pewdiepie.

“Felix?!” Matthew exclaimed. His eyes swept the group. “Ken, Tyler, Jack?! What are you guys _doing_ here?!”

Jack was looking at them with a confused but also tense, wide-eyed expression, mouth hanging open, face white with one arm tightly clutching a leatherbound book. “ _What the fuck? What the fuck are ye two even doing here,_ **_how-_ ** _?!”_

“Oh, good _god_ , Matt, you’re hurt-” Ken began, staring at Matthew in alarm.

“Uh, _guys_ , we’ve got incoming,” Tyler announced as he stared down the hall, gripping the katana in his hand. “We’ve gotta go.”

The group looked up and down the hall to see the monster pulling the towel off its head and quickly twisting around to look at them. Jack was the first to step away, tensing in an automatic instinct to run. “Run,” he said, voice surprisingly more calm than theirs, but still with an obvious edge of anxiety. “Back to the safe room, hurry-”

“Gogogogogo-” Felix agreed, gesturing for them all to run and taking off as they saw the monster suddenly rush them.

He didn’t have to advise twice. The group took off down the hall, Matthew lagging just a bit as they did. Stephanie glanced back, grabbing his hand again and pulling him on forward. Back to the entrance hall, she instinctively moved to head for the front door when Tyler reached over, grabbed her arm and directed her and Matthew toward the stairs.

“Front door’s a lost cause, we gotta head up,” he instructed, hand slipping away from her arm to head up the stairs. As much as she wanted to question, she decided to save it for later, preferably when they _weren’t being chased by monsters_ and moved to follow the group upstairs. Only one person kept off the stairs and when Felix realized who, he paused midway, staring down at him.

“Jack-”

“Ye guys go on ahead, I’ll lead it away-!”

“Fuck that, _Jack, c’mon-!”_

“We can’t have it knowing where the safe room is! Don’t worry, I’ll meet ye guys back there!”

“ _Like hell you are, no-!”_

“Felix! _Are we a team or not?!”_

The suggestion, the very words sounded foreign on the Irishman’s tongue but they certainly did their job. The hardness of the Swede’s features softened as a frown remained and at that moment Jack knew he’d said the right thing. He tried to give Felix his most reassuring look possible.

“Look, I’ll be back this time, as soon as I’ve led this monster away, I promise! I mean-ye’ve got someone injured with ye and someone’s gotta do healing, after all. Right?”

Felix hesitated for a second more before sighing and raking a hand back through his hair. “The others are gonna kill me,” he muttered. Glancing off down the hall to see the creature getting nearer, his frown deepened but he made a gesture to move. “ _Go, go, fine, just-don’t get yourself killed, ya fuckin’ potato-”_

Jack didn’t need to be told twice. Giving a wave to the creature to draw its primary attention, he bolted down the other hall as Felix ran up the stairs to join the others.

“Where’s Jack-?!” Ken asked as Felix hurried to join the others in the corridor the safe room was in.

“Drawing away the monster, fucking-” Felix replied quickly, already looking uncertain and uneasy with his choice to just give in.

“...The others are gonna kill us-”

“ _I know.”_

Tyler gave a quick double-knock on the door as everyone struggled to catch their breath, Matthew pressing a hand to the bleeding gouges etched across his chest. The door opened a few inches as Mark peered out, but then his eyes widened and he opened the door much wider to usher everybody in.

“ _Matt, Stephanie-?!”_

“Woah, hey, what the hell are you two _doing_ here?” Ethan questioned, quickly heading over as well. Once everybody filtered into the room, the door was shut and locked securely behind them.

“H-hey guys,” Matthew said, although his voice was pained and weak and exhausted as he wavered, the blood loss already attributing to the unsteadiness in his form.

“Where’s Jack?” Cry spoke up, eyeing the group.

Mark’s eyes swept the group for a moment before landing on Felix with a wide-eyed, questioning look. Felix winced a bit, having already braced himself for an onslaught from the others for his and Jack’s stupid.

“There was a monster after us-I tried talking him out of it but-” Felix shook his head. “He’s leading the monster away but he said he was gonna come back this time. Matt’s hurt and is gonna need some healing, so-”

“W-wait, wait, _what? Healing? Guys this isn’t a video game-”_ Stephanie began, looking around at everyone with eyes as wide as everyone else’s before feeling a small squeeze on her hand. It was enough to draw attention back to her companion, quickly turning back to Matthew. “ _Matthew-_ Oh my god _-”_

“Here, let’s get him...c’mon…” Matthias muttered, moving over to help ease Matthew over to the bed.

“Tyler, where did you set down the medkit?” J-Fred asked, looking around. “We’re going to need to stop the bleeding at least-”

“Over by the bed,” Tyler replied, heading over to help. “Should be around there.”

“What the _hell_ is going on?” Stephanie demanded, her panic and worry allowing for a rare occasion of letting a curse slip and eyeing everyone as she remained close to Matthew throughout. She settled down on the bed next to Matthew, ready to help with the first aid supplies wherever and whenever possible.

Cry sighed. “It’s...kind of a long story, and one we still don’t totally understand ourselves,” he began, speaking up since nobody else was doing so just yet. “But we’ll do our best to fill you in with what little bits of what we _do_ know.”

 

* * *

 

Jack rushed down the lefthand hall towards the kitchen area and immediately he knew he’d made a mistake.

There were dead ends here, _nothing_ but dead ends and very few places to hide. _Fuck_ what was he thinking when he chose this route, he should’ve taken the door behind the stairs and just gone further back into the house, perhaps to one of the cells. He could’ve taken the door leading down to the basement, to the annex, wherever-

Anywhere would’ve been a better choice, but no. He wasn’t even paying attention and now he just made a choice that was stupid as fuck.

Well. All hope wasn’t necessarily _lost_ at this point, but it did mean his life was about to get more difficult. Now he’d have to lock himself inside a room and wait, have to rely on the creature’s attention span and hope it’d eventually just get bored or whatever and wander off. It wasn’t an impossible dream, it wasn’t even uncommon. But each of the monsters seemed oddly somewhat different from each other in their own right, and not just in appearance. Fuck these monsters but fuck this one in particular. This one actually seemed to have some level of patience, annoyingly so.

Fuckin’ _Steve._

He immediately spun on the ball of his foot to make a sharp left turn into the first door he saw: the first-floor library where he’d run into Cry, immediately reaching over and grabbing the door to slam shut behind him and quickly locking it. He wasn’t a second too soon, either-it was just as his hand slipped away from the doorknob that the door suddenly shook with a bang. One bang, then another one, then another. It was enough to encourage him to take a generous step back, staring. It certainly wasn’t the first time he’d done this, not even with Steve, but there was always that gnawing little thought of uncertainty that _fuck_ , this door might not actually hold. And if it didn’t-well-all he could do was run around the room, skirt around objects, try and get the creature all turned around for just a quick second and then bolt elsewhere.

The banging continued, he’d made almost immediate peace with the fact that this was going to go on for a while. In the meantime, he tried focusing as best he could on catching his breath, at slowing the heart that was pounding against his ribcage as he eyed the door warily.

He should be fine. He should be fine, this one was only Steve, after all. Steve couldn’t break through doors, at least he’d never seen it happen before.

“Oh, what’s this?” a voice asked softly behind him, immediately sending a chill up his spine. The voice sounded beyond familiar-although distorted. Familiar because the voice was _his own_ , distorted because the speaker never really bothered trying to _mask_ it at all around him-even though they both knew he could. “Looks like somebody got himself cornered.”

Jack whipped around, coming face to face with his own, staring at the green eyes and toothy grin. He took a step back from the figure, but at the same time let out a small groan of annoyance.

“Fuck _off_ , Anti,” he growled.

The doppelganger tsk’ed, taking a step closer to match Jack’s step back. “Looks like you got careless~”

“ _Fuck off-!_ ”

“Trusting the others again, I see… And to think, if you’d just gone downstairs to investigate all on your own, the only ones you really would’ve had to worry about at that moment would’ve been…” Anti’s sentence dropped, lingering in the air. “I’m sorry. I believe you know those newcomers, don’t you?”

Jack remained silent, staring as some of the color drained from his face.

“What were their names again?”

When Jack didn’t answer, the grin on the other widened even more, so much so he wasn’t sure how the doppelganger could without his cheeks starting to hurt. A glimmer of mischievous malice, excitement and odd accomplishment sparkled in the other’s eyes.

It was a look that scared him just a fraction.

It was also a look that pissed him off.

“Why the _fuck_ should I tell you? _”_

“Because there shouldn’t be any harm in saying it. I already know, after all. You know this.”

“Then why are you _asking?_ ”

Jack got nothing more than a wide grin and silence in response. There was no need for words, the silence accomplishing more oppressive tension than vocalized taunts ever could.

Finally he shook his head, glaring at the entity. “I don’t know why you’re even here. I don’t know what you thought you could do. I know you can’t hurt me, not when you can’t even touch me-”

“I don’t have to _touch_ you, Jackaboy,” Anti pointed out. “I don’t even have to do anything extraordinary. I just have to remind of you of reality and reminisce on the good times. Because I know what’s going on. I’m _always_ there, _always_ watching. And I _know_ you’ve been found by the others, that you’ve started to open up again. But we’ve seen this happen. Many times before. They’ll never leave you alone now that they know. You won’t be able to protect them-”

“Shut up-”

“They’ll die trying to protect you. _Defending_ you. And not _even_ for your own benefit, but for theirs,” Anti pressed. It was at this point Jack realized that the other was starting to circle him, eyes borderline predatory like a shark. “If they haven’t realized it yet, it won’t be long before they ultimately do. Just as they have in all the past loops where they’ve discovered your secret. _You_ are their only hope, their _only_ way out of here. If anybody dies, they’re going to need _you_ to reset everything else. Your own health and the consequences be damned-”

“ _Shut up-!”_

“Because they don’t care about you. They’re selfish. They’re selfish and lulling you into a false sense of security, just to keep you close. Just in case they _need_ you-”

“No...no, that’s not-”

“You really think so? You know just how very quickly they’ll turn on anything they don’t understand. And they don’t understand _you_. I mean, I don’t even have to say anything-you’ve already _experienced_ it in past loops-”

“Just...just go away…” Jack groaned, wincing a bit as he stepped back, a bit closer to the door. With the door in a corner, he hoped he could at least get the circling to stop, get Anti to just _stop_.

“Remember how angry they’ve been towards you in the past?” Indeed, Anti definitely did stop. He also began moving in closer. “Remember when they _locked you away, remember-”_

“STOP IT-!”

“Remember how Felix didn’t even come to your aid? Or Mark? Hell-” Anti scoffed. “Mark didn’t just _not help,_ he _held onto the damn key-_ ”

“Shut the fuck up! Just _shut up!_ ”

“You only want me to shut up because you’re choosing not to remember.” Anti leaned in close. “You just want to forget. But I’m the _last_ person who can be fooled. We both remember-very well in fact-so you’re doing the next best thing and choosing to ignore reality so you can try and believe whatever sweet lies they used to try and regain your trust.”

At this point Jack’s back was against the door in spite of the banging against it, feeling the vibrations run through him but not paying attention. Blue eyes focused on his doppelganger before finally tearing themselves away, a cringe clear on his face. Anti used this opportunity to close the gap between the two of them, now standing nose-to-nose with him.

“You see, Jack. I really don’t even need the ability to _touch_ in order to hurt you,” he continued softly. “Nobody does. Because you stopped caring about the physical pain you experience on a regular basis a very long time ago from serving as their unappreciated shield and restart button. Your memories, however, your trust-now _that_ is a raw nerve. Because you know that unlike them, I don’t speak lies and half-truths, Jackaboy. I know sides of your so-called friends that they themselves might be unaware of, but we know otherwise because we’ve seen them, experienced them. Yes. You know that everything I say is based on memories that are _remembered in full_ and _real.”_

Jack stared at the doppelganger, frozen and pale, breathes coming out shaky. He was too focused staring into those green pools, desperately searching for any form of lies, any sort of deception at all and failing. So focused he was on the other’s _face_ that he didn’t even see the other’s hand move, not until a staticy numbness began to buzz up through his own fingertips and into his own hand. He immediately tried to step back again as if he’d been shocked, but as his back hit the vibrating solidity of the door again, he remembered he was cornered. As the feeling crawled up his arm, he noticed the same sensation beginning to creep up through his other trembling hand, the book slipping from his grasp and and landing on the wooden floor with a clatter.

Before he knew what was happening the doppelganger’s own arm suddenly shot out to pin him across his chest with a strength and weight he couldn’t _possibly_ have. He studied his other hand for a moment, then looked back up at the terrified Irishman with a wide smirk. “I don’t _need_ to touch you. But I figured it might interest you to know…” At this point Jack could see the flash of metal pulled from behind the other’s back. “That I _can_ now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brought to you all by popular demand, here's Anti~! As mentioned before, the game as now changed and things are going to start picking up and falling into place significantly faster now, so get ready and hold on. In the meantime, thanks so much for all the support so far, it really helps with writing and posting. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	26. Chapter 25

Jack stood frozen in terror, staring at the knife that was being brought in close, his skin feeling exposed to the cool air of the room as the tip of the blade slipped underneath the hem of his shirt and dragged it upwards, to which the doppelganger shifted his grip just slightly to grasp the now-bunched fabric. He wanted to reach up, wanted to push the other away, but just as all other times he’d felt this sporadic numbness he found his hands unable to to move.

No. No, this shouldn’t be happening. This shouldn’t be happening, when did Anti start being able to-

The stinging sensation of a knifepoint digging into his stomach and dragging down in a line was enough to draw a sudden yelp. There wasn’t enough pressure to gut, but there certainly was enough to draw blood. A grin slowly crossed the other’s features as Anti’s eyes crept up from his stomach to meet his eyes again. “You got careless. You stopped paying _attention.”_ Anti now leaned in ever-closer, to the point that now their foreheads were nearly touching. “If I wanted...I could just end the game right here, you know?” he murmured. “Put an end to all of your suffering...but you would like that too much, wouldn’t you?”

The tip of the blade lifted, only to come down again, close to the first mark to draw a couple more short lines into his flesh and draw a gasp from the Irishman.

“And I’ve been _so very bored_ for _so very long_ -and now we get to add a new layer to the game, hm? Now things become even more...exciting.” Another three marks into his flesh, causing the Irishman to wince and squirm underneath the other’s grip. “Why end things so quickly now?” Another two markings. “Don’t worry, Jackaboy. I’m not going to _kill_ you.” Another marking, this one felt like a ‘V’. “Although I do wonder just how long the others will wait before looking for you. How much do they really... _care?”_

Jack squirmed again as he felt another mark carved onto his skin, felt the familiar warm wetness of blood oozing down his stomach.

“I suppose it’s lose-lose one way or another though. Isn’t it?” Anti continued. “After all, if they don’t come for you, it’ll be reaffirmed for you that they really don’t care enough as you lie here in a pool of your own blood. Desperately trying to heal yourself back up before you go cold, before too much blood seeps down through the floorboards where you can’t reclaim it.”

Another marking. Jack wanted to thrash, to try shoving the other away, but without the use of his arms and the knifepoint already digging into such a soft, exposed part of his body, he wasn’t sure doing so would only make things _worse_ . He wasn’t sure what the doppelganger was planning to do to him, but leaning forward even a fraction would plunge the tip even deeper into his body. “But then if they do come for you too soon, _they’ll_ be the ones going cold as Steve rips them to pieces.” Another mark, a ‘V’ and three lines this time. “And we’ll get to go around this loop all over again…” Another mark, a line and an X. “You and me.” An ‘X’ in his flesh. “Again and again…” An ‘X’ and a line this time. Despite the small inscriptions, despite how quickly Anti was moving on to each one, the other was talking slowly now to match the agonizing pace of his work, annunciating certain parts of his speaking to match the carving of a new symbol. “And again…” Now an X and two lines, he’d already figured out just what it was Anti was carving into him. And now that all the anticipated inscriptions to the design had run out, he braced himself for whatever inspiration took hold of Anti now.

As the knife pulled away and traced lightly up his skin without intrusion, Anti eyed the paralysed Irishman. “You’ve become so accustomed to shedding blood at the drop of a hat to heal all those around you, haven’t you? A hundred and nineteen loops leading up to this point seems to have turned you into a little speed medic.” He paused, staring into the silent, pale face of the pinned man before him. “Well. I suppose it’s an equal enough exchange. Speed in that to make up for the more recent drag in your feet.”

Giving a small hum as he dragged the point of the blade up to a spot between Jack’s ribs, he continued, “Oh well~ All the better for you, I suppose.” Without warning, he suddenly shoved the blade in, ignoring any possible resistance of flesh and organ underneath. Jack’s vision immediately flickered in and out of black from the shock and the agony as a scream ripped from his throat, causing an even greater pain to ripple out from the pierced, now-spasming lung. Vaguely he realized the noise was causing an even more furious thundering on the door from the other side, vaguely he noticed his knees seemed to be giving out, supported only by the arm pinning him against the wood.

“You know, I’m curious as to just how far your commitment really goes,” Anti mused. “I think we both know what you’ll have to give up to save your own skin. _Who_ you’ll have to give up. The question is, are you willing to sacrifice it so you can continue this hopeless venture to save your friends? Will you give it up to choose suffering for them? Or will you just...allow yourself to bleed out on the floor and sink into a deathly bliss?” Leaning in close, he whispered into his ear, “ _Tick tock, Jack. I wouldn’t take too long to decide~”_

* * *

 “Okay, he’s been gone for way too long,” Mark muttered after a while. Ever since most of the group returned, he’d been unable to sit still, pacing left and right and around the room. Some of the others were doing their best to stem the bleeding from the gashes in Matthew’s chest and-all things considered-doing a fairly decent job of it, at least. The gashes were deep, but the biggest concern was more so bloodloss and infection. But otherwise he’d survive it, especially if the injury could be healed up soon.

“I’m going to go look for him.”

“Mark-” Felix started, frowning.

“He said he was just going to lure the monster away, right? Well it’s been-” He checked his phone. “Almost an _hour_ by now. What if he’s pinned down somewhere or hurt? Or…” He couldn’t bring himself to even _suggest_ the worst that could’ve happened.

“Dammit…” Felix whispered with a small sigh, but he couldn’t deny either how worried he was. So instead he shook his head and moved to his feet, glancing around at the others. “Well. You do got a point, I guess,” he muttered. “So me, you-”

“Maybe me?” Ethan suggested with a shrug and a raise of his hand. “I mean, after all, I _am_ a wizard now. I’ve got powers. I may as well test them out on any monsters we could possibly come across.”

“I-I’m not entirely sure we should try that all out just yet,” Mark pointed out. “Especially to that degree. We don’t know anything about the book you found or if it’s even all that safe to _use_ yet. I mean, the one Jack’s using already seems pretty sketchy. Surely there’s a cost to using this sort of stuff-”

“I’ll go,” Cry volunteered, grabbing the knife next to him and getting up. He looked back at Ethan. “Ethan, the others are going to need your help with keeping Matthew stable. And besides, if the magic actually proves being as epic as it sounds, you might actually be their best line of defense if anything busts into the room-” He paused, casting a glance over at the Patricks. “And all things considered, defense is something the people in this room are really gonna need.”

Felix nodded in agreement. “We’ll hopefully be gone for no longer than ten minutes. I saw Jack head off down the left hallway-more than likely he’s just pinned down somewhere.”

“ _Just_ pinned down there,” J-Fred echoed grimly.

“Be careful,” Matthias warned, a troubled frown on his face.

Mark nodded. “Yeah, we’ll make sure to,” he agreed.” Turning to the others, he asked, “We ready?”

After some nods from the others, the group cautiously headed out the door. The click of the lock behind them softly ushered assurance of the others’ security. The group of four moved quickly, quietly and efficiently downstairs, immediately turning left once they hit the first floor and heading towards the kitchen/lounge area.

The door to said room was actually wide open, but the one to the left, the one that led into the first-floor library was shut. Shut and upon testing it, locked.

The four exchanged looks before Mark called quietly through the door.

“ _Jack?”_ he questioned. “Are you in there?” After a second with no answer, his expression turned to worry and he reached into his pocket to fumble with the keys he’d obtained so far. “Guys, I’ve got a really bad feeling…” he admitted as he finally found the right key and jammed it into the lock.

Giving the key a twist before withdrawing it and grasping the doorknob, he pushed the door open and stepped inside, immediately freezing.

The first thing he saw was blood.

It was everywhere, its coppery smell filling the room and making his stomach turn. Flecks on the wall, a trail along the floor-

A trail along the floor-

He quickly moved to follow the trail, which quickly led him to the Irishman lying limply face-down on the floor in a pool of his own blood, not too far from the door. His clothes were torn, stained and soaked through with dark crimson. His chest, his abdomen, his ankles. Not all of the spots that were utterly covered and soaked in blood blood held injury-a telltale sign of at least partial healing-but _oh god_ he wasn’t moving and please don’t say he was dead. Oh god no-

“Jack?!” he exclaimed, quickly kneeling next to the Irishman and turning him over. He scarcely noticed the other three rushing into the room, Ken closing the door behind them and locking it firmly. Panic began to settle in amongst them at the sight. There was a fraction of relief when he noticed Jack’s chest heave, but then a harsh, gargling cough wracked his body and there was more blood coming out of his mouth and _Christ_ what were they going to do? They weren’t healers like Jack was, they didn’t have the book-

The book.

Where the hell did the book go?!

He cast a frantic gaze around the room, eyes sweeping the area in a desperate attempt to find the book. He didn’t have to look too far, it was close by the green-haired man’s prone form, almost underneath where his hand lay. As he leaned over, reached to grab the book with shaky hands, he began to flip through it. Okay. Okay, this _was_ how Jack healed them, right? Now how the hell did he use it exactly? Nobody had really gotten a very good look when he was doing it.

“Mark-” Felix began, an edge of worry and reluctance to his tone as he eyed the American.

“ _I know_ , but if I can figure out how to save him-you’re not talking me out of it-”

“I know-”

Unexpectedly, it was Cry who quickly closed the distance from his spot a few feet away to Mark, reaching down to abruptly seize the book from Mark’s hands. Mark looked up at him, a frown on his face. “ _Cry, what the hell-?!”_

“Yeah, no, hang on, _give me a minute-”_ Cry suddenly spoke up, flipping rapidly through the pages, then foregoing all of them to flip to the inner cover. He paused for just a moment, his eyes lingering over a few tiny scrawls written in Jack’s handwriting before hurrying over to the table and setting the book down, then raising the knife while also raising his other hand.

“Cry?” Felix asked cautiously. “What are you about to do?”

“Yeah man-hold on-” Ken began.

“I think I’m doing this right-yeah-” Cry muttered, resting the pad of his index finger on the tip of the knife and pushing down until there was a generous pinprick of blood, giving a soft hiss at the sharp pain. Turning back to the book, he eyed the design on the inner cover. He’d seen similar on the inside of the back cover when flipping through, too-both were clock patterns with ornate Roman numerals and moveable hands, although the decorum of the design was marred by the thick, layered streaks and stains of blood. One clock was larger, one was smaller. He was just going on a whim here but...smaller first. Smaller seemed more like...smaller spell? Maybe?

He settled his bleeding fingertip just in front of the hour and minute hand which currently rested at twelve, then quickly drew the finger around the design counter-clockwise. “C’mon, c’mon…” he whispered, staring intently at the clock inside the book.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. He considered flipping to the back clock now instead and testing out the same method when a light suddenly caught his eye. The clock was being traced over with a cyan light. His eyebrows shot up as he recognized the familiar sight, putting his hand back over the circle with fingers spread out as if to pick it up. When he withdrew his hand, the tracing of light hovered just above his fingertips, the hands on the clock pattern still moving and spinning rapidly counter-clockwise on their own volition. It was shaky and unstable, casting an eerie light on his now-bloodied finger as the glow around it seemed to expand outward into an oblong bubble of shimmering cyan light, but at least it seemed to be working. Now within such close proximity of it, he could hear a soft ticking coming from the clock hands in the moving pattern, not quite in sync with the movements so much but still ever-present.

“Oh _shit, so that’s what I was doing in the vision-”_ he whispered in awe.

Felix frowned, rising from Jack’s other side to take a step towards Cry. “Cry-?”

“ _I’m an idiot. I wasn’t hurting him. I was_ **_healing_ ** _him!”_ Cry hurried to Jack’s side, kneeling down to Mark’s right. “Here, just let me-here-help me with this-” He waited as the others moved to peel up Jack’s bloody shirt to expose his stomach, his chest, and all four of them stared frozen for just a minute as they took in the Roman numerals carved into Jack’s stomach. Inscribed in a perfect circle, just like a clock.

Cry was the first to shake it off, it wasn’t that hard when he was already having to maintain focus just to get the magic in his hands to remain stable. As soon as the others had pulled away, he quickly brought the bubble down onto Jack’s half-healed chest wound first, staring intently as he watched the blood around the wound seep back in, as if magnetized to all that was within.

A few hoarse gasps from the Irishman beneath them, he was shaking, spasming-and then that was when the screaming began.

“Jack-!” Mark began, but Ken shook his head, putting out a hand to give him pause.

“Healing hurts, remember? Because Jack said you feel the initial pain all over again?”

Mark made a face as _yes_ , he remembered, but that didn’t make any of this that much easier. Felix looked like he was going to be slightly sick, but he quickly got up to change his position from Jack’s side to behind his head, reaching down to gently but firmly grip the young man’s shoulders and hold him down.

“Somebody help me, he’s going to hurt himself,” he instructed. “Or Cry. Or block the healing he needs with his thrashing-”

“ _Thank you,”_ Cry whispered as he continued, struggling to maintain the unstable magic within his own hand. With help from the others, this would hopefully go a whole lot more smoothly.

“Hold on, Jack,” Mark muttered as he moved to hold down the other’s legs. “Hold on, just hang in there. We’re not going to let you go. We’re all getting out of here together, _remember? We promised we were all getting out of here together, just hold on for a little while longer-”_

As soon as the chest wound was healed up-the most serious wound, from the looks of it-Ken quickly helped Cry check the Irishman for any other wounds. Most of them had already been healed up, although various cuts and bruises still remained scattered throughout-those soon got the attention they’d been denied. When they reached the blood at the ankles, they realized it’d seeped out from cut Achilles. Achilles that had already been healed, _already been healed before lungs drowning in blood._

“Goddammit, Jack…” Felix whispered as the horrific realization settled in and left the group poised in silence. Finally Cry shook his head, quietly moving over to crouch down next to Felix and heal up a cut still oozing blood from Jack’s forehead.

“Make sure to get his stomach next,” Ken muttered softly.

“Yeah. Planning on it,” Cry agreed, watching as the blood seeped back into the Jack’s forehead, drawing a small whimper from the unconscious man as it slowly sealed back up. Cry couldn’t resist a wince, partly from the look and the sound, partly from the sudden light ping of pain he felt in his own head and a feeling like something within his own mind was gradually chipping away, accompanied by what seemed almost like a light tugging sensation and then followed by an odd lightheadedness-although whether or not this was a phantom pain from seeing the wound so up close, he really couldn’t be sure. “Sorry, buddy,” he whispered.

“Hey, Jack. You’re doing okay, man. You’re doing fine,” Ken comforted, a hand on the man’s shoulder. “You’re going to be fine.”

“Okay, now his stomach…” Cry muttered, shifting positions again and moving the bubble to Jack’s stomach. Each Roman numeral was almost perfectly positioned around his navel, macabre but precise. And the second the masked man brought the bubble of healing down upon the clock inscription, the magic suddenly sparked and fizzled out.

Everyone stared before Mark finally spoke up.

“...Cry?” he asked softly, hesitant. “Please tell me you just...lost focus or something.”

Cry blinked several times, staring down at his now ordinary hand and making a face underneath the mask as he shook it a couple times, as if that was going to make it come back on. “I...I don’t think so,” he replied quietly but honestly, shifting his gaze back at the clock inscription on Jack. “I’m not sure why I can’t seem to get this to work on that...why I can’t get that to heal up, but...something tells me that’s kinda something different entirely.”

Ken sucked in a breath as he eyed the stomach scrawlings, finally stating, “Well, at least it ain’t fatal. We’ll get it bandaged up when we get him back upstairs.”

Mark drew in a shuddering breath and nodded, finally moving to Jack’s side and glancing around at the other three. “That’s all the healing he needs done? Or at least that we’re gonna be able to do on him?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Felix replied, moving to Jack’s side as well and moving to pick him up with some effort. “C’mon-c’mon, potato-”

“Here, let’s-Felix, you’re gonna screw up your back all over again, give him to me,” Ken instructed, taking Jack and adjusting the Irishman around to his back. Cry watched for a moment before going back over to the table and picking up the book, pausing for a moment as he stared again at the trails upon trails of deep red on the clock. The crimson was darker than he ever imagined blood to be, dried or otherwise, and his own now shined in bright fresh contrast against it. He tried to ignore the sickening feeling of just how many times this implied its frequent use and shut the book before grabbing up his knife again. His eyes lingering on the table for just a second, he pulled that one German book over to him, _Ubertragung von Gesundheit_ , and set it on top of the time-turning book before turning to the others.

“We ready?” he asked, looking over the trio as they worked to ensure Jack’s position was stable-especially if they had to make a sudden run for it. When everyone was finally in agreement, he nodded, making his way over to the door to unlock it and poke his head out. Look left, look right, everything seemed to be in the clear.

He had a creeping, ominous feeling, like by taking the time-turning book and using it and being one of the faster ones on his feet, he’d taken Jack’s place for even just a brief time. But at this point...so be it. So fucking be it if it gave Jack a break for even a moment. Giving the others a wave, he opened the door a bit wider and headed out into the hall, allowing the others to keep pace with the focused intent of everyone making it back to the safe room together.

Together, and then hopefully they could figure out things from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, looks like the game has shifted and changed. Poor Jack really can't catch a break at all. And in the meantime, that's at least _one_ vision explained-and a number of them to go. Keep theorizing and brace yourselves, shit's gonna start getting crazy! But in the meantime, thanks so much for all the support, really helps me with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	27. Chapter 26

“How are you guys doing?” Tyler asked, heading over to the bed to check up on the couple. There really wasn’t all that much anyone  _ could _ do at this point, aside from investigating the door to the secret room-but they’d all agreed not to do that without Jack. As tempting as it was, they were all in agreement, so any distraction was welcome.

“The bleeding’s slowed at least,” Stephanie informed softly, looking up at him from her spot next to Matthew. She hadn’t moved since things had settled down. “Thank you.”

“Not gonna lie, we’re kinda surprised you guys are even here,” Ethan confessed, lingering nearby with the tome in his hand. “I mean, we were kinda expecting help? But we weren’t expecting it to be you guys.” He paused, then added, “No offense or anything.”

“No offense taken,” Matthew replied weakly with a small chuckle in spite of everything. “Ah-to be honest we kinda didn’t come out here to help. Heck-we didn’t even know you all were out here at all. We kinda ended up here through a series of flukes.”

“Flukes?” Matthias questioned, frowning slightly.

“How do you find this place on accident?” J-Fred wondered. “It’s out in the middle of  _ nowhere _ .”

“Our GPS must’ve glitched out,” Stephanie surmised. “Maybe because of the storm? Or-I dunno.” She let out a sigh. “The car we were using was a rental-”

“Yeah, they’re gonna  _ hate _ us when they found out what happened-” Matthew added, cringing slightly.

“Yeah, again though, nothing we could’ve done about it,” Stephanie sighed. “Act of god, after all. GPS sent us down that way, not our fault we couldn’t see the road all that well.”

“Still, they’re gonna question why I wasn’t paying attention better,” Matthew sighed. He then shook his head. “Ah well. It’s gonna suck explaining to them but I’ll do it happily if we manage to make it out of here  _ alive _ .”

“Wait a minute, what’s this about ‘act of god’?” Bryan asked, frowning. “Did you guys wreck or something?”

“Oh,  _ no, _ we got, uh, washed away,” Matthew explained, raising his eyebrows at them. “I’m not sure how long you guys have been here and all, but the storm’s gotten pretty bad out there. The road goes over a river-I guess it was dried up when you guys came up here? Uh-but it’s not anymore. It’s flooded.”

The group stared for a long moment before Ethan finally broke the silence, letting out a sigh and shaking his head. “Dammit, so much for waiting for help to arrive.”

“Must be why help’s never come in any of the past time loops,” J-Fred noted.

“Yeah, but he never mentioned anything about more people coming,” Matthias pointed out.

Ethan frowned. “Maybe he was gonna tell us after he woke up. He didn’t exactly tell us much beyond the basics during his breakdown.” He shook his head. “Otherwise, I don’t really know what could’ve changed, you know? It’s not like we can really influence the outside world at this point-” He glanced over at the Patricks. “Unless anybody maybe contacted you guys before we got here? What  _ are _ you guys doing in England anyway?”

“We were actually here for a conference,” Matthew admitted. “It’s really going on up in London, but it doesn’t actually start until the end of next week. So the original plan was just to hit up a few towns along the coast and in the general area until then.”

Stephanie shook her head. “We did talk to Felix a couple weeks ago to let him know we’d be in the area, but we weren’t planning on meeting up with him until Thursday,” she added. She shrugged. “And I’m pretty sure we haven’t really talked to him much since?”

“Yeah, I mean-Steph and I landed in London just a few hours ago,” Matthew confirmed. “And before that it was all packing and getting videos ready-it’s been at least a week since we’ve talked with Felix or anyone else in the group in general.” He frowned, switching tracks. “So you’re serious? This place is really full of monsters?”

“Yeah,” Tyler sighed. “So far we’ve really just come across two, but we have reason to believe there could be more running around.”

Matthew winced slightly. “Great. We kinda ducked into this place to get  _ away _ from the monsters.”

“Wait a minute-” Ethan frowned. “To get away from them? So you mean-there’s monsters outside too?”

“Yeah,” Stephanie replied, frowning. “After we made it back to dry land, we came face to face with one of those things. Kinda looked like a wendigo from-”

“Until Dawn, yeah,” Ethan finished with her, nodding grimly. “Oh-trust me, Tyler and I know all about it. Several of the others in the group do too. We’ve kinda had encounters with that one, up close and personal. It made some sort of high-pitched whining sound, am I right?"

"Yeah...yeah, that's actually exactly right," Matthew confirmed with a nod. Making a face as he thought back, he added, "It was pretty fast, too. There were a few times I was actually a little bit worried we weren't going to manage to outrun it."

"Guys-" Matthias looked over at the others. "You know what this means though, right? That creature got  _ out _ somehow. There might be another way out of here besides just the front door."

"Or the guy who showed Jack how to use the book just opened the door to let the monster out," Tyler pointed out, frowning.

"Yeah, but why would he do that?" Bryan asked. "It's not like a dog; that thing gets out and runs free and it risks being found by people. Civilization would find out those things exist."

"Maybe. Maybe not," Tyler pointed out. "If the road is cut off..." He shook his head. "I just...I'm not sure I'm completely convinced that this was all somehow random."

J-Fred frowned slightly, letting out a soft sigh. "I guess it  _ is _ a little bit suspicious..." he confessed.

Before the small group could dwell on it further, there was a sharp couple knocks at the door, drawing their attention. The group exchanged glances before Ethan finally took the initiative, moving to open the door. As he did, his eyes widened and he took a couple steps back but left the door wide open to let the rest of the group in. Everyone stared in silence at the tattered body on Ken's back, wide-eyed.

“Oh my god, Jack!” Stephanie exclaimed, she and Matthew staring at the Irishman with wide eyes.

" _ Holy hell _ , what happened?" Ethan whispered, taking in Jack's torn and blooded clothing.

"We're not really sure," Ken replied as he headed over to the bed and eased Jack down onto the floor as carefully as he could, considering the bed was currently occupied. "Trust me when I say that it was a  _ lot _ worse when we first found him."

"And no, he hasn't been conscious once," Felix replied before anyone could ask, clearly agitated and irritable.

"Well then-how- _ what? _ " Ethan stammered, staring at the Jack. "He was  _ worse? _ What does that even  _ mean? _ " Eyes coming to rest on the giant red stain on Jack's chest, he sucked in a breath.

"They mean that I healed him," Cry replied heavily, book in hand. "I...guess I kinda took the initiative and...well, I guess I'm the backup now. If anything happens to Jack, we can fallback to me as healer, so long as we got the book." He paused, then added, "Or anyone really, I guess, I just-" He shook his head. "I don't think this is the first loop it's been that way."

Everyone's eyes swiveled around to stare at Cry. The masked man shifted somewhat uncomfortably before rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"...Yeah, I think I used the book before."

"Hang on, so-" Tyler frowned. "You've used it before? How? How did you know?"

"I-I had a vision a while back," Cry replied. "Uh-back when Matthias had that one vision about his brothers, I think? Back in the bedroom? And I..." He swallowed, trying to sort out his own thoughts. "To be honest, when I first saw the vision, I thought I’d hurt him or something. I mean, considering he looked half-dead in the vision and I had blood on my hands and was doing...something...that seemed kinda trippy. I didn't exactly see the book in the vision but it looked exactly the same-" He shook his head. "But no, now I'm pretty sure of it. I healed him using the book."

Mark's eyes swept the group as he thought on this for a moment. "Has anyone else had any visions of anyone but Jack using the book?" he questioned. When silence answered, he turned to Cry. "Maybe that's what's different."

Cry tilted his head curiously and when he spoke, the confused frown could be heard in his voice. "Huh?"

"Maybe that's why your visions are a lot more intense. Because you've used the book before. I mean-at the moment that seems to be the only real variable putting you apart from everyone else, right?"

"Except Jack, who...doesn't get visions? Maybe?" Ken pointed out. “And then there’s Ethan…”

"Jack seems to remember everything all on his own because he's been the primary user this whole time-"

"H-hold on, hold on-" Matthew interrupted, holding up a hand. "I think I'm a little lost here.  _ We're _ a little lost here?" He exchanged a look with Stephanie for confirmation, who nodded in agreement. "What's this about visions? What's this about Jack and...and books?"

Felix glanced over at the others. "How much have you guys told them?"

"Uh-about how there's a bunch of monsters in here and how we're all trapped in here now," Matthias replied. He shook his head. "To be honest, we didn't really get around to explaining until a bit late; the first portion you guys were gone, we were all kind of focusing on patching up Matt's injury."

"Reminds me..." Cry muttered, setting down one of the books in his arms and walking over to the bed. Setting the book down on the mattress next to Matthew, he opened it to the clock design as his thumbnail flicked at the already-forming scab on his  finger again until it disappeared and blood pooled at the injury again. "This is gonna hurt a bit, okay? And-it's gonna look weird as all hell. But trust me when I say that it's gonna help out a lot in the end."

Before either of the Patricks could interject, Cry moved his bloodied fingertip to the hands of the small clock, turning them back counterclockwise. Instantly a cyan light sparked back up over his hand, an intricate clock pattern blossoming out over his palm with the hands spinning backwards at a rapid pace. As the couple stared, a shimmering bubble of matching color expanded outward, surrounding Cry’s hand. It was a bit more stable this time, although barely, not at all having quite the same intense focus as Jack’s healing.

Still, it would be enough.

"Okay, so...brace yourself," Cry said quietly as he looked up at Matthew. "Like I said, this isn't just safe, it should actually heal you. But...it is gonna sting a  _ lot _ in the process, so just be prepared for that."

Matthew frowned, shifting a little as Stephanie sat nearby and watched with worry and wariness. Cry reached for Matthew's injury, keeping his hand hovered just above it. The bubble seemed to shimmer in greater intensity and the hands on the clock pattern over his palm only seemed to spin back faster-as it seemed to whenever healing was at work-and the group watched as the blood seeped back into the injury, soon followed by the injury slowly beginning to seal itself back up, all four gashes across his chest. The sensation drew a surprised and pained yelp from Matthew despite his preparation, but then he grit his teeth and gripped the sheets in silence when he noticed some of the others casting nervous glances towards the door. Right, making noise would probably be bad. The last thing they needed at the moment was catching the attention of any monsters outside.

It only took a couple of minutes to get the injury fully healed up if even that, to which Cry let his hand drop and the spell flicker out. For a second the masked man swayed, to which Ken frowned and moved forward. "Cry?" he asked.

Cry paused, then shook his head, a hand moving to his forehead as he did. "It's okay," he assured. "It's okay, I'm...fine. I think." He paused in seeming self-assessment before turning back to the worried faces of the others. "I think it's just...I dunno. Using this book seems to take up a bit of energy, I guess. And cause a little bit of lightheadedness? I'm sure it's fine."

Ken frowned, eyeing Cry with uncertainty. "If you say so..." he replied, although seemed a bit unconvinced.

"Uh-" Matthias meanwhile stepped forward with a handful of green fabric. "Here, we have something."

Mark looked over, crossing the short distance to take the neon green fabric the other's hand and unfolding it before grinning softly in relief. "Thanks. He's gonna need something that's not torn and bloody," he said quietly before moving back over to Jack's side and start pulling the tattered jacket and shirt off his form. As he did, everyone caught sight of the clock pattern on the Irishman's stomach and now stared.

Stares at Jack soon turned to stares at Cry. "I-" Ethan frowned, looking from Cry to Jack and then repeating the motion before bringing his eyes back to settle on Cry. "I don't mean to critique or anything, but I think you missed a spot."

"No, I didn't," Cry replied, shaking his head. "Believe me, I tried healing that spot up, I really did. But for whatever reason it just...I dunno. It freaking negates the magic." He gave a small, helpless shrug as he added, "And I don't really know why."

"That wasn't made by any of the monsters," Felix noted grimly, an edge of anger in his voice. " _ Somebody _ did that to him. Somebody else in this house-" As he moved to pace, he brought his hand up to his face to rub his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose between his thumb and his fingers. "Goddammit-"

Cry's gaze followed Felix for a moment and although the frown on his face couldn't be seen, it could certainly be sensed. "Hey. Hey, Felix, c'mon, man. Don't start blaming yourself-"

"But I should've  _ known better _ ," Felix interrupted, letting his hand drop as he turned on the ball of his foot to twist around and look back at Cry. "We  _ know _ there's someone else in this house, we  _ know _ whoever it is made contact with Jack and dragged him into this whole fucking...time  _ mess _ ..." Now turning fully to face the other, he continued, "We don't know anything about this guy  _ except _ that he knows how to turn back time, that he's probably with the monsters in here, and that for god-only-knows-what-reason, he seems to have it out for Jack. Nevermind  _ alarm bells. _ All fucking three of those things should be fucking  _ sirens _ and every single one of them was ignored-"

"Felix-"

"And because of that, Jack almost  _ died. _ " Felix shook his head, turning away to pace again. “I shouldn’t have let him just go off like that, I should’ve known something like this was going to happen-”

“ _ Felix,” _ Cry said, this time a bit more firmly as he caught the Swede’s arm. He stared at the blond intently as he said his next words in an unwavering tone. “It wasn’t your fault. Jack’s been doing this for a while now in more loops than he can even keep track of. And he hasn’t died  _ once _ . He knows what he’s doing and he has a good idea of the consequences more than anyone else here if things aren’t done right. If he wanted you to run and let him lead the monster away, it’s because he was worried you were going to get caught instead, or that the monster was going to follow and catch  _ all of you _ . Or that you guys could’ve accidentally lead that thing back up to the safe room in your retreat-we really don’t know.” He paused as he considered his next words carefully before continuing. “What we  _ do _ know is that we’re going to have to trust him just as much as we want him to trust us. And if he’s asking us to leave the area, he’s probably doing it for good reason.”

"Something else we know now: if it's a person that did this to him and not a monster, that's some unpredictability beyond the monsters," Ken pointed out. "Jack didn't seem too worried about it though. I'm sure there was reason for that." He shook his head. "Maybe something's changed-"

"I'm sorry,  _ what is going on? _ " Matthew cut in, drawing attention back to himself and Stephanie now that they were done checking himself for any remaining traces of injury and removed any bloody bandages from now nonexistent wounds. "What is this about a book? What is this about Jack? What is this about loops and  _ how is Cry able to use magic _ -?!"

As Mark finished pulling the neon green Team Edge shirt onto Jack, he looked up at the couple with a small sigh. "It's kind of a long story, but you'll wanna remain sitting down for this." He shook his head, drawing in a deep breath. "We still don't entirely understand everything going on and Jack's easily a bit more knowledgeable about all this than we are. But so far, this is what we've managed to figure out, at least..."

So they explained what was happening, taking turns here and there, adding in their own experiences, and overall as Mark promised, really explaining to the best of their ability. After all, there was still so much they didn't know, so many details Jack never actually went into when he revealed the truth as vaguely as he did. By the time they were finished, Matthew and Stephanie were staring in jaw-dropped silence, casting glances at Jack.

Finally Tyler finished the explanation as a whole with, "And Jack did stress something before all of this. He said that you two were never even supposed to be here. No one else has ever actually showed up, which is what makes the two of you showing up here so  _ weird." _

"Well it's not really hard to see  _ why _ ," Matthew pointed out. "Considering this whole place is in the middle of nowhere and now cut off by a freaking  _ river _ -"

"Wait a minute, what?" Mark asked, looking from Matthew to Stephanie with a frown. "What do you mean 'we're cut off'?"

This time it was the Patricks' turn to explain their story, and once they finished, the overall sentiment of the room ranged from uneasy to crushed.

Finally Felix sighed, shaking his head as he moved to walk away from Cry. " _ Fuck, _ " he muttered. "Fuck. Of course. Of course waiting for help to show up was gonna be too easy."

"Yeah, if Emma and PJ or anyone else was gonna come looking for us, they'd probably turn around at the sight of the river," Ethan agreed quietly with a frown. "That or they'd end up getting washed away too. Or ambushed by monsters-"

“At least a car would provide decent shelter and escape from monsters,” J-Fred muttered. “But yeah, I’d definitely worry about the river now.”

Mark looked a little sick at the idea before shaking his head furiously. "Let's-let's not even consider that possibility right now," he replied. "We have enough to worry about in here, with this group already. I swear if we start worrying about them and Amy and Kathryn and the others..."

“Or Marzia and Signe-” Felix sighed. “Fuck. Okay. Let’s just-yeah. We’ll try and focus on the problem in here first and...yeah, now definitely try and get out of here as fast as fucking possible. I don’t know why we even thought we could just wait it out in the first place. Of course it’s way too fucking easy.”

Cry was silent for a moment as he eyed the door, then turned his attention back to the armoire. “...Well I guess we’re just going to have to start taking a more proactive stance then,” he finally concluded. “Guys, I wanna check the secret room behind the armoire. I know we told Jack we weren’t gonna split up without him or anything but...well, now we’ve already done that-” He paused to add in a mutter, “And thank god that we did-” Back to his normal voice, he continued, “And seeing as how I can use the book now in case anybody gets injured or anything, I think we need to start getting this stuff done if we can as soon as we possibly can. Jack can get some much-needed rest in the meantime-everybody wins.”

“Agreed,” Mark muttered. “We probably shouldn’t have everyone going at once though. Group of three or four? Who all is going with?”

“I’ll go,” Tyler volunteered, who looked significantly shaken at the idea of Kathryn getting tangled up in this whole mess.

“Uh-” Ken looked around the room before shrugging. “Same. Yeah. What the heck, I’ll go too.”

“We’re also going to need to make a run down to the bathroom,” Matthias pointed out. “We actually have a  _ gun _ now. It’d be even better if we got some ammo for it.”

“I can go with you guys,” Ethan volunteered. He looked back at Felix and the Patricks. “You guys can stay in here with Jack?”

“I-” Felix looked back at the small group before letting out a sigh and nodded. “Yeah. Flamey and I will guard this group.”

“Flamey?” Mark asked with just the tiniest hint of amusement betraying his worry.

“Yeah. Flamethrower’s gotta have a name, Mark,  _ god-” _ Felix replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, managing to draw a hint of a grin from the other. “Seriously though, we’ve got this. You guys get going, just…” His eyes flickered back down to Jack before looking back up to sweep around the room and take in all the others. “Be careful, okay? Because now we’re pretty positive we’re obviously trapped in here with some psychopath too.”

“Psychopath might actually be somewhat easier to deal with than monsters now that we actually know about him and can keep an eye out,” Matthias agreed, although the thought still brought a slight wince to his face. “...The bar’s kinda set pretty low at this point, so.”

“We’ll keep an eye out,” Bryan assured, walking over to Ken. “Really hate to ask of this, but I’m gonna need that crossbow back.”

“Yeah, okay,” Ken sighed, passing the crossbow and arrows over to him. “Didn’t end up having to use it after all, so all the arrows should still be there.”

“Cool, thanks.”

Mark watched as Tyler grabbed the katana again and Cry picked up the knife, grabbing the baseball bat and eyeing it for a moment before heading over to Matthias. “Here, you’re probably gonna need this more than me,” he offered.

Matthias looked down at the baseball bat before looking back up at Mark. “But what about you?”

“I…” Mark looked back at the group before shrugging. “My fists? I dunno, I’ll think of something. But you’re about to go running out there and probably off further from the room where we are, so…”

Matthias hesitated, looking back over at the others in his group. Finally he sighed. “You’re the one that’s going into the unknown,” he pointed out. Looking back up at Mark, he replied, “Keep it. I…” He shook his head, not entirely convinced his own argument wasn’t dumb, but if nothing else, he was going to stick to it. “I have faith in Bryan and Ethan. And Joey as soon as he gets some ammo in his gun,” he replied. Looking Mark in the eye again, he added, “We’ll find something for me along the way, even if it has to be a kitchen knife like Cry’s got. Don’t worry about it.”

“If you’re sure…” Mark replied, although his voice was weighed down by worry and uncertainty. Giving the man a quick pat on the shoulder, he added, “You guys be careful.”

“You too,” Matthias replied before his group moved to head for the door.

“Hey, if you guys could maybe keep an eye out for any weapons for us, too?” Stephanie called over. Glancing over at Matthew, she then looked back at the others. “Any of you guys? We’d like to start helping out too.”

Mark looked back at the two on the bed, as well as Felix and Jack, his look softening. “You are helping. You’re keeping an eye on Jack,” he assured. “Get some rest in the meantime and we’ll let you guys know if we found anything decent.”

“Will do,” Matthew replied with a small sigh, leaning back against the wall.

Cry’s eyes flickered over his party as he picked up Jack’s book before he moved to head over to the armoire. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit slower in this chapter, so kinda just a breather-type. Things are gonna pick right back up within the next couple, so hang tight! But in the meantime, thanks so much for all the support, really helps me with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	28. Chapter 27

Cry reached forward, pulling the doors open and reaching up to pull the rack down up above. A click was heard, the back swinging slightly back and allowing him to push it the rest of the way out. He climbed up through the newly-made opening, crawling through and back out into a small narrow room with nothing more than a staircase leading up. There was nothing else otherwise, nothing but dust and darkness. Turning back to the others, he called out, “It’s clear.”

He was soon followed behind by Ken, Mark and Tyler, who all took a look around and kept the door open for the time being, allowing the light from the safe room to pour on through. “We _really_ need to find a flashlight at some point…” Tyler muttered as he tried peering up the stairs.

“I’d be content with a lightswitch,” Mark confessed as Ken turned around to examine the entranceway from their side. It wasn’t to much avail though, not with the way the light was coming in at the moment at least.

“Well...c’mon. Clearly we ain’t finding anything down here,” Cry ushered, starting up the stairs. Mark nodded, moving up ahead and pausing towards the top of the stairs to try and push up on the ceiling.

“There’s a door here,” he grunted. “Guys, give me a hand-”

The four of them moved forward, setting weapons aside for just a moment to give one, two, three hard shoves up on the door above them. Finally something on the other side gave a loud, heavy scraping sound and then a crash and the group froze briefly to listen for anything further. When their ears were met with silence on the other side, Ken gave a final added push to swing the door up and open, allowing dust to pour in. After a cacophony of coughs and sniffles, Tyler glanced around at everyone before grabbing his weapon and moving to take the initiative and climb up through the hole, easily foregoing the short ladder. The man peered around for a moment, squinting through the darkness.

“Well nothing’s attacking, I just…” He blinked a few times, eyes struggling to adjust to a darkness even deeper than what they just came from. Dust aside, the air was mostly stale and unpleasant, causing his nose to wrinkle just slightly. “I can’t really see anything, hang on,” he muttered, dusting off his clothes and taking a few tentative paces deeper into the room as the other three climbed in after him. A short diagonal ways from the opening he could make out what looked like a wall, instinctively drawing him to it to serve as a guide. As he reached the wall, his hand slid across, hitting something that felt like a lightswitch. Flicking it up, a buzz filled the air on each side of the room, showing that they’d emerged into the center of it.

The room itself wasn’t the standard rectangular shape all the way around. It was fairly normal on the left side, but then on the right it narrowed out to two separate areas, separated by the thick half-wall the lightswitch was on. The light to the left came flickering dimly from a hanging lamp, showing a pair of long tables with dusty old plates and glasses and candles, surrounded by stools. There was a door on the back wall with no clues as to where it went. Taking a few steps forward to look at the back section of the right half of the room, it was mostly shadowed but the barest minimum of light streamed in through a dark skylight, showing a sooty fireplace and a sort of kitchen area.

“ _OH MY GOD-!”_

The sudden exclamation caused the brunette to spin around with a grip on the katana hilt in preparation, eyes wide-but then he saw that what Ken was staring at wasn’t a threat.

It...wasn’t alive at all, it was…

“Oh my god, is that a _skeleton?_ ” Mark breathed, slowly approaching the skeleton on the floor, lying close to the right of the entranceway. Without a doubt it was the skeleton of what looked like a man dressed in a blue and black suit. The man’s hand was outstretched towards the entrance (where they could now see a barrel had fallen over on the other side-must’ve been what had made the door so heavy to begin with), and beyond him provided an even grimmer image now illuminated by the lamplight streaming down from above. Behind him were two rows of beds, five to a row, and in the corner was a skeleton still precariously perched on a stool, facing one of the beds where another skeleton laid.

Cry hesitantly approached the pair of skeletons as the others lingered back, although Ken made it about as far as the first beds on the row before stopping. As the latter reached down to pick up a white teddy bear keychain on the floor to examine, Cry slowly walked to the head of the last bed to stare down at the figure lying in it.

It looked to be another male, both skeletons probably were, the one in the bed dressed in a stained, bloody jacket with glasses while the one sitting on the stool looked to be in a drab green uniform.

“They must’ve been trying to escape too…” he finally breathed, his soft voice barely audible even in the stifling silence. Nobody said a word. Turning to the others, he raised his voice just a little bit as he struggled to keep the sinking anxiety out, voicing what was on all their minds. “Guys...this could be _us.”_

“Let’s try not to think about that,” Mark murmured heavily, quickly turning from the scene to try and get a look everywhere else around the room. Walking quietly around the area, he made his way over to the door on the back wall and opened it, peering inside. Flicking on the light, he looked back at the others. “There’s a bathroom in here.”

“I think...hm.” Tyler glanced around at the others, hesitant. “I think we can use this room as the new safe room. I...I kinda don’t want to-” He was unable to keep himself from glancing at the human remains in the corner. “But it seems hidden enough. I don’t think these guys died from being _found_ at any rate, just from injuries and stuff. And seeing the state the room’s in right now...I don’t think we’ve ever been up here in any past loops. I doubt even _Jack_ knows about this place.” He paused, thinking on it for a minute. “We can cover up the bodies or wall them off or...or something. Somehow. Keep them out of sight and what we do see can just...be a reminder not to get too comfortable in this place, I guess.” He still couldn’t help the wrinkle in his features at the idea of sharing the room potentially long-term with a dead trio in spite of his words though.

Mark slowly walked around the room, taking everything in. A few large baskets of food in the kitchen area, most of which had long-since gone bad but a few packaged things and cans that might still be somewhat okay. Something leaned against the stone fireplace, and after a moment of his mind processing it, he realized he was staring at an axe. As he turned around to head over to the other side of the room where the tables were, he eyed the few books on one of the tables, the half-melted candles, the boxes of ammo. It was at the last discovery that he briefly wondered if the gun they’d found belonged to someone in this group.

Tyler meanwhile eyed some of the first couple empty beds, seeing a folded scarf on one with a heavy iron pipe lying next to it, then the bed across from it with the two halves of an old European sword. The bed next to it had a pile of something small and round...upon closer inspection, he realized they were cherry bombs. “Looks like we might’ve found some extra weapons in the meantime, too,” he murmured. Glancing around at the skeletons around them, he added in an even softer tone, _“Thank you.”_

“So we’ll just...cover the skeletons up with blankets?” Ken suggested, although he seemed a bit uneasy at the prospect of interacting with them at all. Gesturing to the one that was in the middle of the floor, he added, “What do we do about that one? We can’t just…” He made a face. “I mean...we _shouldn’t_ just leave it there...should we?”

All was silent before Cry replied in a steeled voice, “No. We shouldn’t. I don’t think we should, anyway.” He walked over to the blue-uniformed skeleton, stopping just a ways next to it. “I’ll get a blanket and...I guess I’ll try and roll it onto there as best and as carefully as I can. Drag him over to his friends. Nobody has to help me with that and I don’t think it should be too hard to do solo, so just...I guess if everyone can move the rest of the beds over, a bit off from the corner the used bed is in. We’ll give these guys their own little corner there and cordon it off with blankets or something.” He paused, then added, “It’s the least bit of respect I think we can give to the dead, anyway. It’s...it’s what _I_ would hope people would do for me if I were in their place.”

Mark bit his lip, but then shook his head. "No, I'll help," he volunteered as he walked over to one of the empty beds to tug the blanket off, although he was unable to keep the uneasy look off his face. "C'mon, let's get this place set up. The skeletons are a bit creepy but...all things considered, Tyler is right. This place looks a lot safer than what we've _been_ using so far."

Tyler and Ken nodded, moving to start moving beds around, working to give them their distance from the skeletons in the corner bed-even if it was only by a few extra feet or so. Hopefully it would be enough.

Hopefully as far as rest and recovery went, this place would be enough.

And hopefully, unlike these unlucky few, it would be just that and not cross the line of becoming their tomb.

* * *

The house was quiet as the other group made their way out of the room and down the stairs, turning right to head down the corridor that led to the bathrooms. Nobody did much talking, nobody made much noise in general-everyone was too cautious and a bit shook up after seeing the grim states of Matthew and Jack. Too many people had gotten hurt and too much blood had been shed recently. Too many questions were still spinning around in this place with too few answers. Initially the problem was just supposed to be monsters and now...now there might actually be a _person_ going around looking to do them harm, too. As they walked, Ethan absently flipped through the pages of the book in hand, debating on what spell to even use first if something bad even did decide to show up. Debating and...just _hoping_ this whole new ability of his was actually going to prove useful if necessary. He’d already gotten hurt once, already needed saving once. Hopefully the next go around, he’d not only be able to defend himself, but to defend others as well.

They made it to the bathroom without much incident but the group still spoke with hushed tones.

“Okay, I think we should only be a minute,” J-Fred assured as the group slipped into the bathroom. As he and Bryan headed into the adjoining room where the toilet vending machine was, Matthias made his way over to the cubbyholes to grab the pouch. Ethan peered through the door to the adjoining room curiously, staring at the odd, lit-up contraption of the the toilet vending machine for a moment before shaking his head and moving to close the bathroom door to secure it.

As he did, he could’ve sworn he saw movement pass by the closing gap. For a second he froze, staring out silently before realizing that the thing moving didn’t look so much a monster as it did a _person_. His mind flashing back to the realization that this could be the guy that they needed to keep an eye out for, the person who mutilated Jack, he glanced back at the others before looking back out through the gap in the mostly-closed door. “Uh...guys?” he whispered softly, but as he moved to close the door, the figure suddenly backtracked.

And the blunette paused, eyes wide.

Jack stared back at him, a hand on his stomach over his shirt and a worried look on his pale face that quickly gave way to an ounce of relief.

“Oh thank _fuck_ , there you are,” he whispered, wobbling just a little bit as if his legs were about to give way in response to the relief in his voice, along with an added weariness. “Well at least that’s _one_ of you-”

 _“Jack?”_ Ethan glanced back at the others before opening the door a bit wider to usher the Irishman inside, but Jack shook his head, glancing down the hallway. At Ethan’s curious look, Jack finally swallowed, the anxious look crossing his features again.

“I need help. I can’t find the others, I can’t find the book, _Felix is bleeding out in the hallway-_ ”

“Hold on, _what?_ ” Ethan demanded, eyes a bit wide. “O-okay, hold on-” He lifted a hand and started to turn towards the others, but stopped when he saw Jack give a quick, urgent motion to follow.

“ _Hurry!_ ”

And with that the Irishman took off, causing Ethan to frown and open the door a bit wider, stepping out into the hall. “ _Jack!_ ” he hissed, casting a final glance back at the bathroom with a worried look. There wasn’t _time_ to get the others’ attention, to explain what was going on, Jack was already rushing down the corridor, turning the corner. Shaking his head, he whispered, “He’s lost his damn mind…” He paused. “ _I’ve_ lost my damn mind.” Regardless, he quietly closed the door behind him and took off to follow.

Quickly turning the corner into the next corridor that led into the entrance hall, he saw no sign of Felix or even Jack for that matter, but the sight of a partially-opened door to his left caused him to slow to a stop, straining his ears for just a moment as he suddenly felt an edge of alarm.

“...’t worry, I got help, we should be able to- _Ethan, in here!_ ”

The sound of Jack’s panicked voice drew him through the door and down a flight of stairs, into what he realized was the basement. Entering into a small room once he hit the foot of the stairs, he looked around. “ _Jack?”_ he called again. But something was wrong, something was _really off_ about all of this. Didn’t Jack say Felix was bleeding in a _hallway?_ What the hell would they be doing down _here?_ What happened to the Patricks?

But then again, there was the nagging reminder of the fact that this was _Jack_ , of all people. Not just their friend but also the guy who’d been trying to save their lives for god only knew how long. There was clearly a _lot_ they didn’t actually know about Jack anymore but they needed to start trusting him. There had to be _reasons_ to whatever he was doing, as questionable as it tended to be sometimes.

So as he entered into the small room and looked around, he added, “ _Where are you?_ ”

“In here, Ethan, in here!” Jack’s voice came from behind the door across the room, followed by, “Don’t worry, Felix, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay…”

Ethan quickly crossed the room and headed through the door, wondering what the hell he was supposed to even do about this anyway. He didn’t have the medkit, after all, nor could he actually heal people. He supposed he and Jack could try getting Felix back upstairs to the safe room with some effort but if the Swede was seriously down for the count and Jack was unarmed and with his own new magic generally more or less untested…

Well. They’d figure something out. Worst came to worst and maybe one of them could make a run back upstairs to Team Edge. He was already regretting taking off without a word to them anyway; now they were going to be looking for him without any idea-

As he passed through the threshold, he looked around, taking in the room that was easily four times larger than the last but mostly bare, aside from the light above and the door on the back wall as well as another to the left of the door from which he came.

And instantly he knew that something was definitely _very wrong_.

He quickly spun around as he heard the door creak and click shut behind him, eyes wide as he stared at Jack, who had a rather...unnerving look on his face. A grin that was almost predatory and manic, mischief and murder twinkling in his green eyes-

Wait.

 _Green_ eyes?!

Seeing the man in full, Ethan could tell now that it definitely wasn’t the only thing wrong with him either. He was still wearing the same shirt and jacket he arrived at this place in, although ripped and torn and bloodied like it all was when he was brought back to the safe room unconscious. No, no, that wasn’t right, he was supposed to be wearing the green Team Edge shirt Matthias and co. brought, not-

Quickly backing away from the man with wide eyes and clutching the book under one arm, he could feel his heart starting to speed up, hammering in his chest. “Who are you?” he asked, unable to keep some of the rising panic out of his voice. “You’re not-” He swallowed nervously. “You’re _not Jack._ ”

The edges of the man’s grin curled upwards in a sinister way, in an expression very uncharacteristic of Jack. Sure, the Irishman would play around, would joke, would pretend, but this was _actual, legitimate, pure malice and holy hell he was in so much trouble-_

“Aw. Am I really that easy to tell apart?” the man’s voice asked softly, although it was in a taunting tone as he continued to take steps towards the blunette. “What gave me away so quickly? He hasn’t told you about me yet, has he?”

Ethan shook his head just slightly, silent, lips pursed and face pale as he continued to back away. His knuckles on the hand that clutched his book were white at this point, although the hands themselves were flickering, pulsing with electric blue lines that he had yet to actually notice.

“Oh...good~ In that case, I can probably assume he hasn’t told _anyone_ about me yet.” If the man’s grin could widen any further, it just did. “He can be such a good boy sometimes, you know? Such a dedicated friend you have. Such a _conflicted_ one. He knows who to listen to when it really comes down to it...and when...and he knows what’s _really_ important to remember…”

The words brought a frown Ethan’s face as he stared at him and shook his head. “What are you saying exactly?” he demanded. “That Jack doesn’t trust us? That he trusts _you_ more than he trusts us?”

The man hummed softly. “You said it, not me~” he replied, pleased at the conclusion, at the potential spark of chaos that could ignite the already-building powderkeg of confusion, of caution, of uncertain trust. But then he let out a sigh. “Ah, it’s such a shame that _you’re_ the one to draw such a conclusion though-”

“Why do you have Jack’s face?” Ethan suddenly blurted out in interruption. The Jack doppelganger suddenly stopped, green eyes narrowing just a fraction at the displeasure of being interrupted. But at this point a bunch of questions that were starting to accumulate in the blunette’s mind began to tumble out in no real particular order. “Why do you sound like him, what are you doing to him, _who are you?!”_

The man stared him down for a few long moments, grin slowly fading just a little bit as it gave way to annoyance.

_“None of that is going to matter soon, is it?”_

Ethan’s eyes bulged as the man’s voice suddenly slipped from Jack’s normal voice (or at least as normal as it could be if he was a _fucking homicidal maniac_ ) to something almost completely different, something _fucking bizarre_.

This man was suddenly speaking in _two voices at once_ , something that immediately sparked the editor part of his mind to remind him of layered audio. One of those voices was definitely Jack’s, for sure, but the other was unrecognizable.

The other voice had some kind of voice that was lightly pitched, almost lilting and accented...but certainly not Irish-accented.

_What the absolute fresh hell was this-?!_

_“Oh, Ethan, Ethan, Ethan,”_ the man tsked as he started taking steps towards him again, slow and deliberate and seeming to relish in the other’s panic and confusion. “ _It’s almost a shame that you’re never actually able to remember, isn’t it? That this is your fate in this house, your_ **_punishment_ ** _for messing with things you could never possibly_ **_hope_ ** _to understand.”_ The smile started to grow again, toothy and malicious. “ _I appreciate the sacrifice, of course-somebody had to do it, after all. But in the sake of your own self-preservation, you really should’ve just respected Jack’s wishes.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's a bit of a pick-up in the chapters! ...I swear there is reason for why I keep picking on Ethan. All of that will be revealed in time- But in the meantime, thanks so much for all the support, really helps me with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	29. Chapter 28

Ethan’s back suddenly hit the wall, a quick glance to his right gave him view of the door and he immediately bolted for it with a prayer that the room wasn’t locked. Upon reaching it he threw the door open and slipped inside with a twist of the lock behind him. A quick look around the room showed only a large table in the center, a chest of drawers and an armoire along the back. _Shit_ , now he’d gotten himself cornered, but at least now the door was locked. At least that _thing_ with Jack’s face and Jack’s voice that clearly wasn’t Jack wouldn’t be able to get through the door-or at least he hoped it wouldn’t. It didn’t _look_ strong enough to, at any rate.

Nevertheless, he backed up a bit with eyes fixated on the door until he felt himself hit the edge of the table behind him. All was silent for a moment and he let out a breath of relief as he set the book down behind him on the table. With both hands free, he brought them up to drag down his face, eyes brimming with anxiety.

“Oh my god- Oh my god- Oh my god, what the _hell is going on?!_ ” he muttered to himself, trying and failing to keep some of his own panic at bay. This was his _punishment? What?_ What in the world did the entity even _mean_ by that, what the hell did he _do_ in a past loop-?!

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a shrill, manic cackle, bringing his alarmed attention back to the door as wide eyes stared, body frozen.

And it was at the point that he saw a hand _phase through the door like a ghost_ that he knew he was absolutely fucked.

The only thing he had time to do was grab the book behind him when the full body of the entity suddenly passed through the door entirely and quickly crossed the distance in a lunge, hand grabbing his collar roughly and forcing him down, back against the table as the other hand raised a knife. He could hear the entity chuckling in its own shrill, pitched, nightmarish way of dual layers, which suddenly dropped down into one, just Jack’s voice as he leaned forward to whisper into Ethan’s ear.

“ _Say goodbye._ ”

Ethan’s response was immediate.

He didn’t think on it, he didn’t spend any time deciding on what to use.

It blurted out, hand pushing between them with palm pointing to the entity, almost instinctive.

“ _Spiritus verberare!”_

A surge of electric blue light surged out from his palm and into the entity- _through_ the entity?-but it was enough to make the other man freeze and drop the knife. As the entity’s form suddenly wavered like a mirage and jolt and spasm like a glitch, it gave a shrill layered shriek and Ethan shoved away the lightheadedness that’d suddenly washed over him, pushing himself off from the table and moving to push the...the _thing_ aside, instead passing _through_ it as he sprang forward. The unnerving feel was enough to cause him hesitate only briefly as he looked back at the man, but he quickly shook it off as he unlocked the door and all but threw himself through the threshold, adrenaline now taking hold as it coursed through his veins, seemingly embodied in the electric blue volts that seemed to glow underneath the skin of his hands. Without missing a single beat he’d crossed the larger room, unlocked the door, crossed through the smaller room, rocketed his way up the stairs and staggered out into the corridor, heart pounding in his chest.

His eyes looked wildly left and right in the corridor, looking for someone, _anyone_ , before deciding his best bet might be checking back at the bathrooms. Although it was a dead end, Team Edge might still be there. And even if the four of them were unable to do anything about this _maniac_ through their own means, the last thing he needed to do was lead it right back up to the safe room.

Immediately turning right to race to the bathrooms, he suddenly felt a hand grasp his wrist from the stairway, giving a sudden hard and swift yank to pull him off balance and send him down, toppling to the floor and landing hard on his back. The breath was knocked from his lungs upon impact, stunning him for just a few brief seconds. It was all his attacker needed. In a flash the man was suddenly on top of him, pinning him to the ground with a weight that was and yet couldn’t be there, keeping him down with arms and hands and knees that were only sporadically solid. Ethan thrashed, trying to get the man off but his hands weren’t even sure what to grasp at or hit as they passed _through_ the entity in some spots and made contact in others. A hand grabbed his throat and squeezed, the heel coming down on his windpipe as the entity grinned down at him with triumphant green eyes.

“ _Can’t cast a spell when you can’t even breathe, can you?”_

Ethan’s hands went to the hand’s wrist, only barely managing to grasp it as it hardly seemed corporeal, struggling desperately to pull it away, nails digging into the skin. His vision was beginning to swim, black spots starting to appear around the edges but what he _did_ see was the knife being raised again, ready to come down on him, pierce through his body and take his life-

A gunshot rang out and another layered shriek, the entity twisting around and seeming to flicker before suddenly disappearing outright, leaving Ethan gasping on the floor and Matthias, J-Fred and Bryan rushing forward to his side.

_“Was that seriously Jack just now?!”_

_“What the hell is going on?!”_

_“Did you get him?”_

_“Holy shit are you okay?!”_

_“I think I hit his knee-”_

_“Where did he go?!”_

Ethan stared up at the three, wide-eyed as he curled up a bit and coughed and ever-so-gradually got his breath back.

“Not...Jack…” he managed through his coughs, feeling a residual soreness around his throat where he had no doubt his windpipe had bruised.

“What?” Matthias asked, frowning.

Oh god, at this point now he knew. Now he knew that for some reason, for _god and Jack only knew what reason_ , there was a death sentence on his head and as far as he knew, even more so than it was for everybody else. It left him with a hollow, residual panic and a creeping paranoia, especially at being so out in the open now. At this point he wasn’t sure what to expect five minutes from now, be it him conscious or unconscious or even dead or alive. What he did know was that even if these were the last words he ever spoke, dammit, they were gonna hear them.

“ _That’s not Jack. Something...something else is in this house oh god-_ ” Looking on ahead at the entrance hall and staring at the staircase from where he now sat with wide eyes, he finally pulled them away to sweep the area. As they fell upon his spellbook, he reached over, picking it up and moving to his feet. He paused only for a moment to look back at the others and the urgency had never been greater.

“We need to get back to the safe room. Now.”

Bryan frowned. “Ethan…?”

“Felix and the others _aren’t safe_. I don’t think most of the rooms are.” Setting off towards the stairs without delay, he added, “Let’s go.”

* * *

  _“Jack?!”_ Felix asked, moving to the side of the unconscious Irishman. Since Matthew had been healed at this point, they’d moved Jack up onto the bed but the man had yet to actually awaken. However, that didn’t mean he was silent or even _still_ for that matter. It’d started a while ago, soft whimpering and shaking hands, but no real sign of consciousness. That was one thing and it was certainly painful to listen to, but then a sudden shout ripped through him and his breathing became labored, which immediately brought Felix’s anxious attention rushing to his side.

Matthew and Stephanie were soon to join him, Matthew shooting Felix a worried look.

“What’s happening to him?” Stephanie asked in a worried voice.

“Has this ever happened to him before?” Matthew asked.

Felix stared at Jack with a bit lip and a frown on his face. “I-” He shook his head. “I don’t _know_. I don’t think so, not in this time loop, at least-but he’s barely even been with us this whole time we’ve been in here, I don’t-”

Stephanie suddenly gasped, moving around towards the foot of the bed. “Is that _blood?!”_ she exclaimed, motioning to Jack’s knee.

Indeed, the blanket underneath Jack’s knee was starting to blossom a dark crimson with blood.

“What the fuck?!” Felix hissed, immediately looking around before rushing to the armoire and poking his head in. “Hey! Uh-!” He paused, glancing back at the Patricks and Jack, then back into the armoire, then back again. “...Stay with him for a second. I’m going in.” Without even waiting for any potential forms of protest, he climbed through, into a small narrow room with a staircase. Not even hesitating, he made his way up the stairs and up into the doorway above, clammering on through. “Guys! It’s Jack, _help-”_

Everybody immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to him before moving to hurry on forward.

“What? What’s going on with Jack?” Mark asked worriedly.

“I- _fuck, we’re not sure_ , he just started screaming and now his knee is fucking _bleeding-!_ ”

“What?” Cry asked with a frown, hurrying to grab the book off of one of the beds nearby and hurry to the door. Felix didn’t even bother looking around the room, not just yet, and rather dropped back down to the staircase below. “Did we miss something when I was healing him?”

“Hell if I know,” Felix replied, hurrying down the stairs to climb back through the back of the armoire and into the safe room.

“Careful, Steph…” Matthew was muttering as Stephanie did her best to try and check Jack’s leg as carefully as possible.

Cry quickly climbed out of the armoire and crossed the room, coming to a stop at Jack’s bedside. “Here, let’s get him turned around, let’s see,” he instructed, ready to flip the book open as soon as the injury was visible.

Matthew nodded, taking Jack’s shoulders and moving to flip Jack over as carefully as possible-

And the group stared.

Stared because there was _nothing_ to indicate injury, nothing except the stain of dark red blood on the back of Jack’s pants leg.

“...Uh...okay. Huh. Okay,” Cry muttered. “Let’s-uh-let’s try rolling up his pants leg, I guess.”

But Felix was already doing that as carefully as possible, trying to get a decent look at the injury on the back of the knee. As Mark, Tyler and Ken were close behind to join them, they all soon saw the bloody hole in the flesh, occasionally spurting out blood.

“What the _fuck-”_ Mark whispered, looking to the others.

Matthew shook his head. “He hasn’t really been doing anything. Looked like he might’ve been having a nightmare or something but then _this_ just started happening-”

“We must’ve missed something while we were down in the library. If he was tossing and turning in his sleep, he might’ve opened it back up again-or uh, made it worse, I guess,” Ken reasoned.

“Well, that’ll do it,” Cry muttered, moving to pierce his finger again. As soon as there was blood he opened the book, turning back the hands and creating the healing clock and subsequent bubble around his hand to bring down over Jack’s injury. There was a moment when all the blood just steadily seemed to recede back into the injury-whatever hadn’t already been soaked up by the blanket, anyway-and the sickening sound of bones shifting back into place or maybe sealing back up, as if the kneecap had been fractured or broken-

The group watched as the ragged hole slowly sealed up, a couple of the others quickly moving to try and keep the Irishman quiet in his pain while another couple moved to try and keep him still.

“Seriously, _how-?_ ” Matthew was interrupted as a couple sharp knocks sounded out from the door, drawing everybody’s attention. Stephanie glanced back at the group questioningly, not heading over until she got a nod of assurance from the others and moving to open the door. Seeing Ethan’s group-and the blue-haired man in question looking somewhat ragged with _bruises on his neck_ -her eyes widened and she quickly waved them in, shutting the door behind them.

“Ethan?” Mark asked, immediately crossing the room to meet the group, followed close behind by Tyler. “Guys? What happened?”

“There’s someone else in this house,” Ethan replied in a rushed tumble of words, the paleness of his face clearly showing just how shaken he really was. “There’s someone else in this house, there’s _something else in this house-_ ”

“Hold on-hold on-” Mark began.

“Yeah, we _know_ that-” Felix started. He then stopped, a frown on this face. “Wait. What do you mean by _something?_ ”

“There’s a thing in this house and it looks like Jack and sounds like Jack but it’s _definitely not Jack_ and I think it might be a ghost and-”

“Ethan, Ethan, slow down-” Tyler interrupted. Looking over at Team Edge, he asked, “Do you guys know anything about this?”

Matthias shook his head, frowning. “No, we actually got separated not long after we hit the bathrooms-” he confessed.

“ _Guys-_ ” Felix began in exasperation.

“Sorry, it was my fault, this _thing_ appeared to me looking and sounding like Jack and said everyone was gone-” Ethan cut in.

“What? No. Jack’s been here the whole time,” Matthew replied, confusion clouding his face. “ _Unconscious-”_

“What happened to Jack anyway?” Bryan questioned as he neared the bedside, a frown on his face upon noticing the blood soaked into the sheets. “Is he hurt-?”

“ _Guys, one at a time, Jesus-!”_ Felix interrupted. “Ethan. You first.”

Ethan shook his head, swallowing with eyes still a little wide. “Okay. Um-okay. So I was in the bathroom with the others and about to close the door when Jack showed up. He didn’t have the book or anything and he said he’d woken up and nobody else was with him. That was pretty weird, but then he said he’d found you bleeding out in one of the hallways and he didn’t have the book or a medkit or anything so he was trying to find some help-”

“What? No.” Felix shook his head, a frown on his face. “No, I’ve been in here the whole time. We’ve _both_ been in here the whole time.”

“Yeah, well I know that _now_ , but he took off before I was able to ask him any actual questions or tell the others- I figured it was him just being weird again? So I followed after him and-oh yeah, I think I might’ve found the entrance to a basement-”

“Well basement always equals bad times,” Mark muttered, shaking his head.

“There’s a _basement_ in here?” Ken asked. “Where?”

“It’s a door in the hallway leading to the bathrooms-anyway that’s not important, _look_ -I followed him downstairs and a couple rooms later I thought I found him. He sounded like he was trying to keep Felix stable so I walked in and he shut the door on me and-and-” He shook his head. “This is gonna sound crazy. I _know_ this is gonna sound completely crazy but he lured me in there and started trying to back me into a corner. _He had green eyes, guys. Jack has blue-_ ”

Cry seemed to tense before suddenly exclaiming with a gasp, “ _Fuck, that’s what was wrong with his face!_ ”

“Cry, shut the _fuck up we’ll get to you in a minute-_ ” Felix exclaimed, running a hand back through his hair as he tried sorting out all of the information and voices out.

“Guys, he was gonna _kill me!_ ” Ethan continued. “He _tried_ to kill me! He didn’t exactly go into details but he said it was my fate in this house, my _punishment_ for messing with things I didn’t get? He said it was some kind of sacrifice and how I should’ve respected Jack’s wishes, I’m pretty sure it had to have happened in a past loop but _I don’t remember what the hell he was talking about-_ ”

“So he’s able to keep up with the loops like Jack was?” Tyler pressed.

Ethan’s mouth worked for an answer before finally sputtering, “I-I _guess?_ Guys that _thing_ wasn’t human! After a point its voice started going crazy, like someone had edited a video and layered the voice on it. It didn’t just sound Irish, it sounded-I don’t know, there was-there was some other kind of accent on it-”

“German?” Cry questioned. Ethan shook his head.

“No-”

A memory suddenly coming to mind, Mark’s eyes flickered to the book in Cry’s hand. “What about Italian?”

Ethan was silent for a moment as he thought about it before replying, “...Yeah. _Yeah, actually, it kinda sounded Italian!_ How did you know?”

“There’s a chunk of the book that’s written in Italian,” Mark replied, feeling a sudden knot in his stomach.

“What happened then?” Matthew asked, frowning.

“ _He tried to kill me_ ,” Ethan replied simply. He then took a deep breath and shook his head before elaborating, “He had a knife and he tried to kill me! I made it into another room and locked the door and I _thought_ I was safe but he just ghosted on through and managed to pin me, so I used that spiritus verberare spell on him-” Noticing the electric blue lines spark to life in his hands, he glanced down and gave them a look, tone suddenly scolding. “ _Quit it I’m not casting anything right now-_ ” He shook his head again. “ _That_ actually seemed to work. I tried to shove him off and went _right through him_ because he must’ve been a freaking _ghost_ but he still managed to pin me with his hands and stuff anyway? I don’t-I don’t even-”

He drew in another unsteady breath before continuing. “I got up to the top of the stairs when that thing suddenly grabbed me and pinned me again. All that was solid was his hands and knees, guys, he tried to _strangle me_ and _stab me_ -”

“And then we got there and Joey shot him in the back of the knee-” Matthias finished, which immediately drew the eyes of several of the people in the room to Jack as it seemed to click. After a second it seemed to click with Matthias as well as he breathed out, “Oh, _crap-_ ”

Felix stared for a moment before suddenly rounding on Cry. “ _Right_. Your turn! Go.”

“Uh-” Cry paused, startled, but then shook his head. “It’s just-okay. So a few of the visions appeared kinda sketchy like…” He paused. “Well I was going to talk to Jack about them first but I think it’s okay now, I think we can safely conclude that this clearly wasn’t him at all, but I’ve had visions like...at one point we were all locked in a cell except Jack. Now there was a guy who I _thought_ was Jack, who we _all_ thought was Jack that opened the cell and let us all out, but then he said something that seemed kinda threatening? Um-something about how he wasn’t gonna explain something because he figured we’d all prefer saying our prayers instead? I can only _assume_ we all got attacked by one of the monsters or him or _something_ because that room was kind of a one-way-in-one-way-out scenario-”

“That’s the one you were telling me about in the dojo-” Mark noted quietly, frowning.

“ _Yeah!_ And I didn’t mention before because I thought it might’ve just been me being...off or something, I don’t know? But I remember thinking in the memory that there was something _off_ about his face but I just couldn’t really put my finger on it-” He paused, then continued, “A-actually-shit, okay. So there were two other visions I had downstairs in the kitchen and library back when I was with Jack-”

“When you got the nosebleed?” Felix questioned. Cry nodded.

“Long story short, both of those intense freaking visions seemed to have Jack acting all sketchy. Every time I’ve had one of those, all I could think was that there was something _off_ about his face. Now I know what it was, it was his _eyes-_ ”

“Seriously, what the hell is up with your memories-” Mark muttered, frowning.

“Ethan, your memories are off too-” Tyler began, to which Ethan shook his head.

“My memories are that I’m _not getting any_ from past loops. Like, none, intense or...or even any at all?” He shook his head. “I’m not sure _what_ that’s all about, but all I can assume is that it’s _something_ different. Maybe-maybe it’s a wizarding thing? I dunno...”

“Jack didn’t mention anything about this,” Felix muttered.

“Jack didn’t mention a lot of things; he was kind of wigging out when he went into this stuff,” J-Fred pointed out.

“And we didn’t get to talk to him all that much before he was separated from us and attacked,” Tyler sighed.

“Okay. Well. That sorts _one_ thing out that’s been an issue for us. Maybe,” Mark noted. “So whatever’s going on with Ethan is still up in the air and we _might_ want to figure that out because now it’s got some kind of homicidal maniac pissed with him specifically.”

“Yeah...yeah, figuring things out would be nice,” Ethan agreed shakily. He moved to walk away from the group, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips. “Oh my god. Oh my god…”

Felix watched for a moment before turning back to the others. “What did you guys find in the hidden room?” he asked. “If that _thing_ can phase through doors, this room is suddenly on a whole new level of unsafe.”

“Beds. Mini-kitchen, tables, bathrooms. It’s almost like a loft or something, just-” Mark’s voice suddenly fell short, a frown crossing his face.

“But?” Matthias pressed curiously.

“...Um...well, I think it’s pretty clear we’ve never actually been up there before. And the entity might not even actually know about it-”

“Then what’s the problem? That’s _great-!”_ Bryan began, face brightening.

“There were bodies up there.”

The room fell into a tense, grim, shocked silence before Tyler cleared his throat. “The bodies up there are skeletal; they’ve been up there for a long time. There’s really only three of them-”

“ _That is three too fucking many-_ ” Felix began.

“Still, it’s secure. Looks like it hasn’t been touched for a while, so…” Ken began, shifting and frowning a bit.

“We’re doing our best to put them out of sight and out of mind as best as we possibly can,” Tyler assured. He then shook his head. “At the moment we don’t have a whole lot of options. If it’s the safer place to be, especially with Jack recovering, then that’s where we need to relocate.”

Matthew exchanged a look with Stephanie before looking back over at the group. “Uh. Well,” he mediated. “Why don’t we see just how bad it is and…” He shook his head with a shrug. “I mean, I guess if we don’t really have a choice, then we don’t really have a choice.”

Felix frowned, but then dragged his fingers back through his hair and sighed. “Fuck. Yeah. Okay, I...I guess. Yeah, I guess. C’mon, let’s get Jack and head on up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so things are really starting to pick up now. Not gonna lie, all the theory-crafting going on in the comments has me pretty excited! I look forward to seeing where you guys think this thing is going! And as always, thanks so much for all the comments and support, it really helps with writing and posting this thing. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	30. Chapter 29

It didn’t take long for everyone to gather their things, Tyler moving to pick up Jack and head on up with the others. One by one they all entered, stepping away from the entrance once inside and moving about to look around.

“Where are the bodies?” Felix asked uneasily, glancing back at the group who’d been in there prior.

“If you have to ask ‘where are the bodies’, I think we did a fairly decent job,” Cry noted with a touch of relief. “And again, said bodies happened to be skeletal, so it’s not quite...as bad as it could be.” A tiny wince was heard behind the mask, followed up with an, “...I guess.”

“Well, at least there’s more space to sit and sleep,” Stephanie noted softly, moving around the room. “More people could get rest here. And considering all the dust-”

“Yeah, again, we don’t think even the Jack-lookalike or monsters know about this place,” Mark finished with relief.

Matthias meanwhile headed over to the fireplace, grabbing the axe to examine before shrugging and turning to J-Fred and Bryan. “Well, got a weapon now, I guess.”

“Axe isn’t bad,” Bryan agreed.

“It’s short-range but yeah, not terrible. Could be worse,” Joey seconded.

“We should start looking at planning our next move,” Cry suggested wearily, gesturing over to the tables on the left-hand side of the room as Tyler set Jack down in one of the nearby beds. “‘Cause as far as this room goes, I think it’s honestly about as decently-arranged as we’re gonna get it.”

“Honestly, at this point I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Tyler muttered as he headed back over to the group. “Clearly there’s still a  _ lot _ we don’t know about this place that Jack does. We should wait for him to wake up first, then figure things out from there.”

“Not to mention that some of us are running on fumes,” Ken pointed out tiredly. “I know I ain’t the only one at this point. We should try and get some rest and before making another run out there, if that’s what the plan is at this point.”

“I’m not exactly feeling tired yet,” Matthew confessed. “Surprisingly enough. I’m sure it’ll hit sooner or later, but at the moment…”

“Yeah, to be honest, I’m not feeling all that tired either,” Ethan agreed.

“Maybe we can try and figure out what the heck is going on in the meantime,” Stephanie suggested. “Whoever’s exhausted enough to sleep can go sleep and whoever isn’t…” She shrugged. “I mean, we only have so many beds anyway. And some of us should probably be up to keep watch, so…”

“I’d be down for that, yeah,” Felix agreed with a nod, moving to sit down at one of the tables. “Information-share and puzzle-solving. At least until Jack wakes up. Let’s do this.”

For the next couple hours, the group split, some getting rest in some of the beds on one side of the room, the others sitting around one of the long tables, getting a thorough information-share on clues, on memories, on anything and everything they knew and remembered. There was no holding back now, everything was on the table.

A couple of hours later and there  _ still _ wasn’t all that much to show for it-everything was as uncertain and disjointed as ever, but at least now the two newest members of the group were now properly filled in on everything.

“You know, I wonder,” Cry eventually muttered, tapping his fingers against the surface of the table absently, anxiously. He’d tried being among those to get rest but ended up laying in bed for maybe twenty or so minutes just quietly listening before finally just giving up and joining the group on the discussion side of the room. “I wonder if numbers have something to do with it.”

Everyone swiveled their gaze on him at the suggestion, to which Cry shifted a little. “Uh-well I mean, it’s just-” He cleared his throat. “I mean, guys- _ think about it _ . I might just be grasping at straws here, this could totally be just coincidence, but...twelve coins to get that one key from the vending machine. Twelve people in the group-according to Jack, Matt and Stephanie showing up is something  _ new _ . You know how  _ weird _ that’s gotta be after running through this with all the same sort of stuff happening and all the same people over fifty-seven times? What the heck made this one different? Kinda really wondering now what loop we’re on exactly, if it’d end up being something twelve-related.” He then twisted slightly to gesture to Jack. “Twelve roman numerals on his stomach-that’s  _ obviously _ a clock. All of this is concerning time…”

“Maybe the guy behind this just has a sick sense of humor-” Mark began, but then shook his head. “No. I’m pretty sure that much isn’t actually a maybe.” He wrinkled his nose. “Maybe it’s just a tic, a sort of motif he really likes using. I mean, it’d be appropriate enough given the situation.”

“Yeah, but us showing up in this loop after so many already is kind of different,” Stephanie pointed out. “Cry’s right.  _ Something _ made this loop different. Something is about to happen.”

An apprehensive silence fell over the group at these words before Felix turned to the Patricks. “Are you guys  _ sure _ you don’t remember anything that seemed weird at all around the time you got here? Around the time you landed, maybe?”

Matthew shook his head. “Not really,” he replied. “I mean...there was a standard string of bad travel luck: plane landed late, accident on the main road so traffic was jammed up pretty bad...and running late to our hotel…” He shrugged. “There was the weather, but this  _ is _ the UK and I’m pretty sure that much is beyond the control of this...this entity-”

“The GPS was acting up?” Stephanie suggested.

Matthew made a face. “Yeeeah, but GPSes do that all the time, Steph-”

“Maybe, but it took us onto the road up to this mansion. It took us onto this dirt road through the woods in the middle of  _ nowhere _ that doesn’t even get signal for phones and probably otherwise. And then the road doesn’t even lead to anywhere  _ but _ this mansion. It seems just a little bit  _ too _ convenient to be a coincidence. Not to mention it directed us into what  _ was _ apparently a dried-up riverbed-”

“Yeah, this whole house is a trap. Everything about it is,” Ethan muttered with a sigh, pressing his forehead down into his hands, elbows on the table. “I think we can just go on ahead and assume that the road placement in that sense was intentional.”

“So hold on a minute, are you suggesting that maybe this entity affected your electronics?” Mark questioned. “Or hacked them maybe?”

“Maybe?” Stephanie shrugged. “I mean, would that actually even be the  _ weirdest _ thing that’s happened in this place?”

A silence filled the room before a chorus of unanimous no’s rang out.

A sudden soft moan drew their attention to the beds, all falling silent upon seeing a shift in one of the sleeping bodies. There was silence broken by another shift, fabric on fabric, mattress springs softly creaking before a messy mop of green hair suddenly lifted, blue eyes blinking sleepily as the rest of the upper half of the body lifted. The Irishman looked around at everyone, then at their surroundings. The confusion and disorientation was undeniable in his eyes and a small frown weighed on his features as he tried making sense of where exactly they were and what was going on and what time loop they were even in.

“Jack!” The exclamations of greeting were numerous, but Mark immediately got up to head over.

“Jack?” he asked.

“Where...where are we? What happened?” Jack mumbled, sounding incredibly lost and confused and still somewhat groggy.

“You told us what’s going on, we promised to work together...and then you got yourself hurt somehow. You-” Mark’s explanation was cut off by a sudden hiss of pain from the Irishman, a hand going to his stomach. Mark watched as Jack leaned forward a little bit first, then tugged his shirt up a little bit-hesitating for only a second to stare at the unfamiliar garment.

“Oh, yeah. And then we also had to change your regular shirt out for your Team Edge one because your other one was all torn up and bloody-”

Jack’s hand froze at the hems of his shirt, close to his stomach as his eyes swept the surrounding area again, finally turning his gaze on Mark.

“Mark?  _ Where are we? _ ”

Mark offered Jack his most reassuring smile possible. “Somewhere safe, we’re thinking. Seeing as how you don’t seem to recognize it at all, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that you’ve never actually been here before. It’s a hidden room behind the armoire in the safe room. There hasn’t been any sign of anyone having been in here for a  _ long _ time, both human and monster alike, so...we think we’re in at least decent standing here.”

Jack tugged the shirt up further, staring at the angry red markings on his stomach before his eyes widened. It was really only at about this point that it really seemed to click what time loop he was in exactly. His mouth seemed to go dry as he stared down at himself, frozen.

Mark frowned. “We couldn’t exactly heal that part up. We’re not entirely sure why, just...the book didn’t seem to want to-”

“Who did it?  _ Who healed me? _ ” Jack asked hoarsely, looking up to stare at the conscious part of the group with dread.

There was only a moment of silence before Cry lifted his hand. “Uh, me? That would be me,” he replied. “‘Cause I remembered how from a past loop, so-”

Jack relaxed a tiny bit, seeming to collapse in on himself from it as his hands released his shirt, only to let his face drop into them. “Oh, thank god,” he mumbled. “Thank god.”

“Jack…?” Cry asked, hesitant. “What exactly do you mean by that? Why is it so important as to who uses the book?”

“I-” Jack then looked up past his fingers, suddenly seeming to withdraw a little bit, guilt flashing over his features. “I’m sorry, Cry. I’m sorry-”

“ _ Jack,” _ Felix interrupted. “Could you actually tell us instead of just deciding to be cryptic about everything?”

Jack flinched slightly but then drew in a shaky breath. “I…” He let his hands drop, fingers starting to twist the fabric of the new shirt, anxiously fiddling with it a bit. “Sorry. I just…” His blue eyes dropped to the floor as he said quietly, “A bunch of loops ago I...I ended up in really bad shape. I think I dropped outta consciousness at one point and when I woke up…” He shook his head. “You shouldn’t have used the book at all. You shouldn’t have saved me.” He swallowed, breathing shakily. “ _ You should’ve just let me die.” _

Everyone stared, but before anyone could say anything, Jack continued.

“The book doesn’t need more than one owner. It  _ shouldn’t _ have more than one owner. Ever since you used it, things have become...complicated.” Jack drew in a nervous breath. “I think you using it has  _ pissed Anti right the hell off.” _

“Anti,” Mark murmured. “Jack, Anti is a  _ character. _ Your online alter ego-”

“Oh really? Is it?” Jack asked, and for a split second the tone in his voice was odd because it didn’t seem to hold sarcasm so much as it did curiosity. He then shook his his head. “No. No, Anti is  _ very _ real.”

“I’m not sure if it’s actually Anti-Anti, but...that must be the entity that’s going around looking like you, right?” Ethan asked quietly.

Jack winced. “So ye’ve already met him, huh? Yeah.” He nodded. “That’d be him. It’s not…” He shook his head. “Mark’s right and you’re right and-whatever Anti is, he’s  _ not _ an online alter ego. He’s a separate person all on his own who just kind of...stole the name and idea, I guess? He’s...he’s something else. Look.” He paused, biting his lip as he debated on how to explain before continuing. “When I first encountered Anti, he was completely different. And I mean  _ really _ different. He had a...silhouette, but it was  _ just _ a silhouette. He was kind of like a...a 3-D shadow of a slender guy about my height with curls. He didn’t even  _ sound _ like me at that point, he had this...higher-pitched Italian accent. He told me that he was the owner of this place and the one who controlled all the monsters here. He said that this was all just a game.” Thinking back, he continued, “It wasn’t until later in another loop when I demanded a name that he claimed he’d forgotten his own. That it’d been too long since...or somethin’?” His face scrunched up a bit in an attempt to remember. “So he took on the name  _ Anti _ , as it seemed the most appropriate to him. For whatever reason.”

“For whatever reason?” Ethan asked, frowning. “Jack, he  _ looks _ like you. He  _ sounds _ like you, he glitches and has a double-layered voice just like your Anti-the main thing that’s different from you is that he’s some kind of crazed violent ghost thing that definitely doesn’t  _ act _ like you. He has  _ green eyes _ . That’s  _ exactly _ like the Antisepticeye you’ve been showing in your...your Say Goodbye video and stuff. You’re not seeing it?”

Jack froze, swallowed nervously as his eyes dropped to the floorboards and he silently shook his head.

“The green eyes are actually something that’s remained consistent throughout the whole thing,” he admitted in a seeming attempt to remain on track. Or perhaps as an evasion to Ethan’s question? “Even when he was just in that sort of shadow form he’s kept those green eyes of his.”

Silence followed before Cry spoke up. “Okay. So he’s pissed at me for using the book. What does that  _ mean _ exactly?”

Jack cringed. “It means that every time loop since then, you’ve died consistently. Protecting everyone is difficult already. Protecting  _ you _ is even harder because he seems to target you specifically  _ every time _ .”

“Nonono, hold on a minute, now things just seem turned around,” Mark said, shaking his head. “That’s what  _ Ethan _ seemed to be going through. Or at least that’s kinda how Anti made it sound from what we understand? Maybe? Jack, has  _ Ethan _ ever used the book?”

Jack hesitated, frowning and staring at Ethan, who stared anxiously back with bated breath. After a moment Jack groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and fingers, rubbing his eyes. “I...I don’t remember,” he confessed. “I remember a  _ lot _ of what’s gone on in this house but I don’t really remember anything like  _ that.” _

Ethan let out the breath he’d been holding. “Okay, so not that-”

“But yeah. I think Anti’s pissed off at him too for some reason or another,” Jack continued. “It’s been sort of the same with Cry for him. He dies every time loop too. I’m not sure it really means much of anything though, or at least that it even  _ has _ to mean anything.” The Irishman twisted slightly to look at Mark. “Considering that it used to be you. I mean, it still kind of is, but not nearly as much as anymore? I guess because Anti’s been focusing in more so on Ethan and Cry as of late.”

“Wait a minute. What? Why me?” Mark asked, frowning.

Jack stared at Mark for a moment, frozen and paling as if he’d realized he’d just said something he wasn’t supposed to before letting his eyes drop back down to the floorboards.

“ _ Jack- _ ” Mark began, but was cut off by Jack mumbling something. He frowned, leaning forward a little to try and hear better. “...What?”

Jack suddenly looked back up at him with a look sickened with guilt. “Because you’re a  _ fuckin’ martyr, okay? Consistently. _ And because he  _ knew _ it’d get under my skin in particular-”

“And why is that? Why me as opposed to anyone else?” Mark demanded. “Everyone’s friends here, not just the two of us.” Noticing as Jack seemed to recoil in on himself, he frowned, his expression softening. “...Jack…”

“I’m sorry,” Jack mumbled, unable to look at anyone. From the way he was tensed, from the amping anxiety his voice held, it sounded like he was about ready to go into another attack. But then his next words came out in a tumble. “I’m sorry.  _ It’s my fault you died in the first loop. _ We were the last two left and we were about to get out and we were  _ standing at the fuckin’ door _ -” He shuddered. “And then I saw one of the monsters charging at us and  _ I fuckin’ froze. I froze and  _ **_you_ ** _ threw me out and got killed instead. It should’ve been me.  _ **_It should’ve been me-_ ** _ ” _

Mark stared at Jack for a moment, frowning. “Oh...Jack…” he murmured softly.

“You protected me all throughout that first fuckin’ loop. I was just an idiot who would’ve died way early on otherwise and then...and then you  _ died _ instead of me and I was selfish and  _ wasted _ that sacrifice to agree to Anti’s stupid game and put everybody through the same hell over and over and over again.” Jack’s shaking hands turned into fists as they gripped his jeans. “I was cocky. I was reckless and stupid. I shouldn’t have agreed to his deal but I was desperate and  _ shouldn’t have even been alive in the first place and-” _

“ _ Séan!” _

Mark’s voice cut through Jack’s words, and reluctantly the Irishman looked up at his friend with a flinch. Mark made sure to look the other in the eyes at his next words, keeping his words even.

“If I died protecting you, that was  _ my _ choice. Maybe you did freeze up, but that could’ve happened to anyone. You weren’t used to this at that point, it was only natural human reaction. And after all that? You could’ve just walked away. Hell, yeah, you  _ should’ve _ just walked away, but you didn’t. You stuck around to try and  _ save _ us. That’s not selfish, that’s brave as all hell.”

“But he’s been using this all against you, hasn’t he?” Cry suddenly spoke up with a jolt of realization. “Anti. He’s been fucking up your mind with all of this stuff the whole time by just outright gaslighting the hell out of you. Because he actually remembers and knows just as much as you do but he’s just spinning it...”

Jack didn’t answer. He didn’t  _ have _ to. The way he tensed and seemed to draw into himself further told everyone all they needed to know.

“Jack? Seriously, fuck that guy. You don’t deserve any of this,” Cry continued. “He’s just trying to keep you off-balance and keep you from trusting us. But we’re your  _ friends _ . Okay?  _ You know us. _ Better than  _ he _ ever could.”

“Jack?” Stephanie spoke up. “You mentioned he called all of this a ‘game’? Why is that? What kind of game is he looking to play here?”

Jack pulled his eyes from Cry to look around at the rest of the group, seeming to think on the best way to explain it. “Oh. Oh-yeah,” he finally recalled. “Yeah, about that. Okay, so basically what all of this is, is-” He paused, drawing in a breath. “When I got out of the house in the first loop I...I didn’t exactly leave immediately. I mean, I was in shock and freaking out and-” His words fell short and he shook his head. “But then Anti came. He said all of this was just a game of his and that I won because I...because I got past a certain point? Once you leave the mansion and you go past the vases out front, the monsters aren’t able to follow. Anti can’t follow either, for whatever reason. It’s like a video game with barriers and everything.”

He thought a moment further before continuing. “Ah-but long story short, he said he wasn’t too happy that I won and proposed a rematch. If I could get everyone out of the house alive, then I win. If he managed to catch me, then it was game over. For me, at least, and then whoever was left could do...whatever.” He shrugged. “Get out, I’d figure.”

Mark frowned, thinking back to when he found Jack. How he mentioned this was all like a horror movie and how much Jack seemed to insist instead that it was all more so a horror  _ game. _ God, the signs were there so early on but...but he really just figured it was more of a gamer sort of disassociation, some kind of coping mechanism-

“Considering the state we found you in though, it looks like Anti already  _ caught _ you,” Cry pointed out. “So...not that we’re relieved to find you alive or anything? But why  _ are _ you?”

“Oh yeah…” Felix murmured, looking from Jack to Cry and back again. “Yeah, you looked like shit but you were still alive at least. Unless he  _ thought _ you were dead when he left?”

Ethan shook his head. “No. No, I-” He hesitated. “I mean, as far as this loop goes, I’ve really only encountered Anti directly once. And I can definitely say that he would  _ make sure _ that you were dead before leaving.”

“He said he could’ve killed me, but he didn’t want to just yet. Said the game was just getting ‘exciting’ and he wasn’t ready for it to end.” Jack paused, frowning and unable to meet anyone’s eye. “He figured I’d suffer more being kept alive rather than dying right then and there.”

“That...seems really unbelievable,” Matthew noted, giving Jack a look. “Regardless of how sadistic he might be, the entire  _ point _ of this supposed ‘game’ is to catch you. No, he needs you alive. Wants you alive? No, probably needs.” He frowned. “To...what, exactly-?”

His words were suddenly cut off by a blood-curdling scream heard from just downstairs, right about where the previous safe room was. Everyone froze and immediately fell silent, looking down towards the door as they all exchanged glances. Nobody dared to say a word until about two to three minutes had passed, and even then, Mark’s voice was borderline silent as his eyes slid over to Jack.

Noting the Irishman’s wide-eyed expression and pale pallor, he asked, “...There’s not supposed to be a thirteenth person here either, is there?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a slow chapter, but Jack's finally awake and things are slowly starting to be revealed. Really enjoying reading the questions and theories in the comments, too-feel free to keep at it, it's really helping with my pacing. Also, finished Camp NaNoWriMo and won! So serious thanks to everyone who's supported this fic so far, it's really helped in writing and posting and you all have been a serious help for reaching my 50k goal! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	31. Chapter 30

Jack silently shook his head, still otherwise frozen.

“And I’m guessing we can safely assume that wasn’t Anti,” Matthew muttered, frowning.

“Guys, I don’t like this. This has ‘trap’ written all over it,” Stephanie whispered.

“Yeah, but if it isn’t-I mean-it could be someone else just like us,” Matthew pointed out.

“Marzia would be getting pretty worried I haven’t texted her back yet,” Felix noted, looking a little sick from worry as the thought entered his mind. Glancing over at the others, he added, “So would Michael...Signe, Robin, Emma, PJ…”

“Yeah, there’s a number of people who would probably come to check on us after going so long with no one making contact with the outside world,” Ethan agreed. He winced slightly. “Suddenly the hope of people coming here to rescue us isn’t looking all that appealing.”

“And if anyone  _ did _ come, they’d be in the same state we would,” Stephanie pointed out. “Soaked, lost, probably chased by monsters...overall, not very good.”

“But they’ve never come here before,” Jack murmured, looking confused and distressed. “ _ Nobody _ has ever come here after us.”

“We’re here,” Matthew pointed out.

“Yeah, and ye  _ shouldn’t _ be,” Jack pointed out. “How? How is this happening?  _ Why _ is this happening?”

“Regardless, if it  _ is _ someone,” Mark pointed out, now looking a little uneasy himself at the idea of anyone else they knew being in the mansion-and in a position to evoke such a shrill scream as well, “They’re gonna need help.”

Jack seemed to cringe a little at the thought, but Felix shook his head with a sigh.

“Well, I mean I guess we are gonna have to head out sooner or later anyway,” the Swede pointed out. “I mean, we can’t really count on a full-on rescue crew anymore either way-”

“Wait, what happened to that idea?” Jack asked curiously, looking over at Felix, then around at everyone else in the group. “We’re not going to.try and wait it out anymore?”

“We can’t,” Matthew replied with a wince.

“The road crosses over a dried-up riverbed,” Mark explained gently, hating to be the bearer of bad news. He could see the exact moment some of the newly-growing hope died in the Irishman’s eyes. “With all the rain that’s been coming down tonight...it just isn’t crossable.”

“Yeah, Steph and I nearly drowned when we accidentally drove into the flash flood,” Matthew explained.

“We’re on our own. We’re going to have to get the key,” Ethan pointed out softly, frowning. “The main key.”

“But first we need to help whoever’s outside,” Cry pointed out.

Felix nodded. “I’m gonna go wake up the others. We should probably do a small group again- _ but this time, for the love of god, this one ain’t splitting up.” _

Jack made a small face but nodded, watching as Felix moved to the other side of the room to start waking up the others. But as something seemed to click in his mind, his face fell further and he paled, suddenly looking around with a frantic expression.

“The book-” he began, feeling around himself and his person as if it was going to be sitting right next to him. “ _ What happened to the book-?!” _

“It’s fine, the book’s right over here,” Cry assured, holding up the book. “I brought it along after healing you up, don’t worry.”

“Oh...thank god…” Jack murmured, a hand moving to his heart as he took a few deep breaths. Heading over to Cry, he held out his hand. “If I could have it back now…?”

But Cry didn’t hand it over right away. Instead he hesitated, seeming to eye Jack for a minute. “...You sure, man?”

Jack’s brows furrowed into a frown. “What do you mean?” He shifted slightly, looking a bit uncomfortable at this. “Of  _ course _ I’m sure. Somebody’s gotta be healer and...and I’ve been doing this for ages-”

“Yeah. Believe me, I noticed,” Cry replied. He paused as he seemed to glance over at the others, making sure nobody was listening in before continuing. “Look, Jack, you and I have both used the book at this point so we both know what it’s like. What it  _ feels _ like-”

“Yeah. Sure. You shed a little blood-” Jack began with a shrug, to which Cry shook his head.

“That’s not what I meant, Jack. And you know it.”

Jack fell silent for a long moment before shuffling uncomfortably and pulling his eyes away.

“What has it been doing to you in...you know...in the long term? I mean, aside from the buildup in traumatic memories? Which can’t be good for you either-”

“Nothing,” Jack replied albeit unconvincingly. “It doesn’t do anything.”

But the silence that permeated the space between the two and the unwavering stare of the masked man seemed to make the Irishman quickly uncomfortable all over again and he shifted, unable to meet the other’s gaze.

“I-I mean the memories that build up over time do start to take their toll on you, yeah, and...it does get very tiring. It  _ will _ fuck with your emotional state and it  _ will _ stress you out to an extreme. You’ll get mentally exhausted and burnt out if you go many loops without actual rest, as ye all clearly saw, and it’ll certainly weaken your resolve...” Jack finally confessed, reluctant. “Like you said-a whole bunch of traumatic memories doesn’t do anyone a whole lot of good. But they  _ do _ hold some value in the end because at least it helps to predict and figure out how to get out of this place. It also makes you a bit less...hesitant, I guess?” The Irishman shrugged somewhat helplessly at this. “In a weird sort of way, it almost seems to make you a bit stronger.”

Cry continued to stare him down, but was now frowning behind the mask. “And you haven’t…?” He paused. “When I used the book, I felt this sort of...lightheadedness. I felt like something was starting to disappear from my mind.” Peering at Jack, he continued, “Jack-”

“Alright, alright, we’re getting a group together. Let’s hurry up and do this so the person downstairs doesn’t end up in  _ too _ many pieces?” Felix interrupted, looking around at everyone.

Jack hesitated, but suddenly reached out and snatched the book away from Cry before moving to join Felix and the rest of the group.

Cry tensed. He almost didn’t let the book go, but didn’t want to make a scene...or at least, not yet. But as he watched Jack head over to the rest of the group with the book tucked under one arm as it had been almost constantly since he’d seen him, he couldn’t help the sinking feeling in his gut, as if he’d just allowed the Irishman to condemn himself to...to…

_ What, _ exactly?

Surely this book came with a price-probably one that went beyond just minimal bloodletting. He was full-on  _ turning back time _ , after all, and in spite of all assurances, in spite of all his own experience, still barely seemed to grasp what the hell he was even doing and how it worked. But he seemed to be just outright ignoring it now, if he hadn’t always been.

_ Makes you a bit less hesitant. _

No.

_ In a weird sort of way, it almost seems to make you a bit stronger. _

He didn’t believe that for a second.

He  _ did _ believe that it probably held some sort of appeal for the reckless, for the hopeless, but surely Jack couldn’t be  _ that _ hopeless yet. Even if he wasn’t sure who he could trust in here anymore, even if he was  _ completely sick of all of them _ , he  _ knew _ there were people out there waiting for him. There would be so many people in his personal life and worldwide who would be devastated to lose him.  _ Surely he knew that, right? _ He wouldn’t just abandon them. He wouldn’t, certainly not willingly, at least-

...Right?

“Cry! C’mon, that means you too,” Felix called over, snapping the American’s attention back to him.

“Coming-” he began, moving to hurry over.

“Yeah, yeah-” Felix looked around at everyone now. “So we’re going party of three? Four?”

“Four,” Ken suggested. “We should probably stick the minimum at four, ‘cause I’m guessing we’ve got Jack in a party automatically-”

“I’ll take second spot,” Cry volunteered.

“I could go,” Ethan attempted, to which Mark stubbornly shook his head.

“I don’t-look, sure the spells helped you during your last encounter, but we don’t even know anything  _ about _ that book-”

Ethan frowned. “Jack does,” he pointed out. Turning to Jack, he asked, “Jack, is this book safe enough for me to use? It’s never really done anything bad to me in the previous time loops, has it?”

Jack hesitated. “It- _ is _ . Mostly. So long as you don’t go using one or two particular spells from there. But Ethan...it’s gonna be bad enough trying to keep any monsters from killing  _ Cry _ . Both of ye out in one go? Together?”

“I’ll go,” Ken volunteered. “And I think Felix was gonna go on ahead with us?”

“Party leader. I guess,” Felix affirmed with a slight face but then a nod, as if to assure himself. “Let’s do this.” He turned to the others. “In the meantime, I guess, uh...rest and…” His eyes swept the room before he continued. “Like you guys pointed out earlier,  _ clearly _ there was another group up here and it  _ does _ look like they were trying to figure out what the hell was going on exactly. If you could maybe pick up where they left off…”

“And see what kind of progress we can make,” Matthew finished with a nod. “Figure out what it is exactly that we’re up against. Well, you’ve got at least two bonafide theorists up here, so you guys can count on it.”

“Just be careful in the meantime,” Stephanie seconded.

“Yeah. Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” Mark agreed. He couldn’t help stealing a glance at Jack. “...Don’t split up this time.”

“We’ll make sure not to,” Cry assured.

“We changing up the secret knock?” Ken asked.

Mark hesitated, glancing over at Jack, who shrugged.

“Don’t worry. Anti may  _ look _ like me and  _ sound _ like me now, but I don’t think he knows the same things I do exactly.” His brows scrunched up into a frown as he added, “Not the things that go on in the mansion, at least. Unless he’s there or stumbles across it himself. He can’t see through my eyes or anything is what I’m sayin’.”

Mark nodded. “Uh-four knocks, pause, then two,” he replied.

“Four knocks, pause, then two, got it,” Felix repeated as he went to open the door. Once open, he checked himself to make sure his flamethrower was there before moving to head down the ladder. “We’ll hopefully be back soon. Hopefully with the new guy.”

“If you’re not back within the next couple of hours, we’re sending another group on after you,” Tyler informed as the others in the search and rescue party filed out after the Swede.

“Yeah, well...let’s hope it don’t come to that,” Ken replied before disappearing through the door.

Once the door closed above them, silence filled the staircase, save the sounds of quietly-shuffling feet. There was a pause as everyone seemed to exchange glances in the darkness, eyes gradually adjusting.

“Um…” Jack whispered, shifting. He glanced around. “So where’s the door?”

“Right here,” Felix whispered back under his breath, moving on ahead of Jack to stop before the entranceway, pausing and twisting for a moment to put his ear to it. As the silence deepened, he listened carefully for almost a minute before finally looking over at the others with a nod and slowly, cautiously pulled open it open. As he saw the closed doors of the armoire, he muttered, “Just like old times” and climbed up in, then pushed open the doors to the armoire to climb out the other side. As he emerged into their most former safe room, he looked around, seeing no one.

“Well, there’s nobody in here, at least-” His eyes stopped and narrowed at the door. “Looks like we definitely got up to the hidden room in time though.”

As everyone climbed out behind him, they all stopped and froze at the sight of the forced-open door. Everyone except Jack, at least, who frowned deeply and swallowed nervously.

“Ryuuzu is out and about,” he noted, completely unnerved. The others looked over at him questioningly.

“Ryuuzu?” Ken repeated curiously, frowning.

“Um-” Jack winced slightly at the thought. “The different monsters have...names. Or at least, Anti will call them each different names, but they are his pets so I suppose that makes sense. The one we normally end up seeing in the beginning, the one that was attacking in the hall last time we were down there? That one was Steve. The one that makes that high-pitched whining noise is...Philippe? I think? Sometimes it’s hard to make out when Anti goes talking in his double-voice thing…”

Cautiously making his way to the door, he continued, “There’s a few others, but ye...ye guys haven’t actually met Ryuuzu yet, at least not in this time loop, and he is the absolute  _ worst _ . He’s the one that would’ve ripped the door off its hinges in that one video from the past loop-”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be going out there then-” Felix began. Jack shook his head.

“We’ll  _ hear _ him coming. That’s the one upside to him. He’s so massive it’s impossible for him to sneak up on you-uh-at least in most cases,” Jack assured. He took a step out into the hallway, looking both ways before turning back at the others. “Looks like it’s all clear.”

The group filtered out after him, looking around.

“Do we even have any idea as to where we might be  _ going? _ ” Cry whispered.

Jack shook his head. “Much like the last two, nobody else is supposed to be showing up at this house. So unlike anyone else here, I’m not entirely sure where this thirteenth person might’ve gone,” Now he certainly looked uneasy. “It-it could be a trap but...I dunno…” He shook his head. “It didn’t have my voice or a double-voice so odds are it might not’ve been Anti but…”

“Well if we were able to hear it all the way up from the hidden room, the person was probably somewhere nearby when he screamed,” Ken pointed out.

“Yeah, but then we took a bit coming out to rescue him,” Felix countered. “He could be just about anywhere in this house by now.”

Cry paused in thought for a moment as they reached the main second-floor hallway, his eyes suddenly coming to rest on the camcorder and giving a slight wince. “Maybe we should start setting the camcorder to just continuous record now,” he pointed out, starting to fiddle with it. “Especially since we’re all together most of the time now anyway.”

“Yeah, go ahead. Let’s turn this into FNAF,” Felix muttered, looking around. “Now all we need is a security room and a screen to monitor through.”

“Give me the tools and equipment and that might could be arranged, actually,” Cry replied in mild joking. “We’d need a few extra cameras but I bet we could find those upstairs.”

“Maybe if we’re stuck in here for another night,” Felix replied, making a face at the thought. “Otherwise probably better we limit our time out here.”

Cry set the camera down, now just keeping it on permanent record as he looked around. “Well. About the only thing I can recommend is maybe we check all the rooms on the second floor before moving on to another. Maybe we’ll find a door that wasn’t locked before or...maybe we’ll find someone hiding out.” He shrugged. “It’s about the only thing I got, anyway.”

“It’s as good a plan as any,” Felix agreed with a shrug, moving to head down to next corridor. The group moved first to the room with the room where Matthias had the vision of his fallen brothers, the door with the hole made in it by Philippe. Quick check and call inside showed it was empty. The group turned around to face the door across the corridor but when Ken tried it, he shook his head.

“Locked,” he noted.

“Ah-hang on, I think I should have the key somewhere…” Jack muttered, fishing around through his pockets before finally pulling one out with the ease of someone who’s done so a hundred times before. Jamming it into the lock, he gave it a quick twist before withdrawing the key and resting his hand on the knob. Before he opened it though, he warned, “Careful with this room though. Like the conference room and the room connected to the dojo, this is one of those rooms with a short, narrow corridor. We’ve been ambushed in this place before, so just...be ready for anything.”

With that warning, he pushed the door open, stepping in and looking around before heading swiftly and silently through the corridor, followed by the others-Ken making sure to shut the door behind them and lock it (although if this Ryuuzu creature was now roaming the house, there was a bit of wonder on just how much good that would even actually do anymore). When they made it into the room, they saw it was empty with really just the bed in the corner to hide under, which Felix went to go check. Meanwhile Cry looked around at the bookcase to the left of the door, the chest of drawers to the right, the sofa and TV off in the other corner.

“Should we still be looking for clocks?” Ken wondered.

Cry glanced over at Jack, who seemed to be wincing slightly at the thought, before replying, “...I think so.” As he made his way over to the bookshelves, he added, “After all, we’re still righting time. And personally I’m kinda wondering if we can manage to get that done with all of the rooms in the house, if maybe just  _ maybe _ we can somehow get any form of signal back.” He shrugged. “I mean, far be it from me to understand temporal anomalies, but…”

“I guess it makes some sense,” Felix agreed, glancing over at Jack. “Jack? Have we ever managed to break all the clocks before?”

Jack hesitated, scrunching his face up in an effort to remember. “I…” He began, but then shook his head. “I thought we did a couple of times. But uh-no. No, I don’t think so. Because now that we’ve found that hidden room, I can see that there’s some places in this mansion that I still don’t know about.”

“Not that anyone can blame you for that,” Cry noted as he searched. “If even the guy who  _ lives _ here doesn’t even know of all the rooms.”

“This whole place is just too fucking big,” Felix agreed, shaking his head. “I’m starting to wonder what the hell we were even thinking when we got this place.”

“Ah-guys, found it,” Cry announced, pulling the clock off the shelves. He looked back at them, holding it up. “Uh-I guess brace yourselves-”

And that was about the only warning he gave before he threw it down onto the floor, smashing it with his heel.

_ He was suddenly in a bare room of white walls and white floors. The only thing up above was the light fixture, bland and faintly buzzing. Standing before him was a massive monster that looked much like Steve but at least double the size, neck shorter but muscles bulging and towering over him. Towering over  _ them _ , because as his eyes lowered, he could clearly see the one standing between him and it. _

_ Ethan. _

_ “Promise me you’ll run,” he begged, feeling the air on his face. His mask was gone again. “Promise me you’ll try and get out as well.” _

_ Ethan hesitated, but then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll try. Just...you first, alright?” _

_ He nodded and the monster took another step forward. At this point, a lunge with its long arms in the right direction would be enough to stop anyone by the door, but at least it couldn’t just reach over outright now. One more step and the lines of electric blue light suddenly shot through Ethan’s veins, glowing just underneath the skin of his hands. _

_ “Gogogogogo!” _

_ His hand tightened its grip on the thing it held and he took off at Ethan’s command, hanging an immediate diagonal right. As the monster swung around to look at him, the blunette’s voice suddenly cut through the the commotion. _

_ “Infernus salo!” _

_ He didn’t see the spell, not most of it anyway, but caught sight of the occasional floating red-orange glow, like embers on a non-existent breeze. He could feel the heat that came off the attack, heard the roar as the monster caught a faceful of it. The monster now moved to charge, not at him but instead Ethan. The steps practically made the floor shake, the floorboards groan underneath. He all but slid through the door like a baseball player, unable to completely stop his momentum. As he tried to catch his breath for just a pause, another word cut through, a word shouted that he’d never actually heard before. _

_ “Aboleo!” _

_ As he righted himself, he twisted around to look back through the door. “Ethan-!” he called over, eyes widening at the sight of the young man practically glowing with white- _

_ He was suddenly blinded by a flash, a loud bang! ringing out throughout the house and making the walls around him shake and shudder. The force of it sent him staggering back, deeper into the room attached to the dojo. When he managed to regain his balance, his ears were ringing, his eyes were taking a minute to focus, seeing bright spots burned into his retinas. He blinked several times as he tried to regain his bearings and sucked in a shaky, nervous breath as he made his way back to the doorway of the bare room. _

_ “Ethan?” he called out softly. The sight that met his eyes made him freeze. _

_ The monster was gone. _

_ Completely gone, as if it’d never even existed. _

_...But so was Ethan- _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yay for more mysterious flashbacks~ And it looks like some of the theorizing is starting to pick up a bit, thanks for that! Anyway, thanks for all the support, really helps with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	32. Chapter 31

“Cry!”

The feel of a hand on his shoulder was enough to pull his focus back reality-or at least present time, present loop-and he looked around to see Felix no more than a foot from him, a worried expression on his face. “Cry? You alright man?”

Cry nodded wordlessly but winced a bit at the sudden pulsing in the front of his head, an echoing pain that seemed to be fading almost as quickly as it’d arrived but still significant enough to notice. As he shifted his weight slightly to one foot, he could see over Felix’s shoulder that Ken was tending to Jack, seemed to be suffering from another nosebleed.

Taking stock of his own state, if the warm, wet feeling on his upper lip told him anything, he soon realized that he seemed to be suffering from the same problem.

He didn’t even think about it. Instinctively reaching up under his mask, he touched the wet space before withdrawing his hand, staring at the crimson coating on his fingertips. Felix’s eyes widened as he stared as well before looking back up at Cry. “Cry…?”

But then he twisted around, looking back at Jack, then back at Cry, then did another look between them before finally his brows furrowed into a frown.

“...Okay,” he said firmly. “Okay. _What the fuck_ is going on with you two?”

“I don’t…” Cry shook his head, bewildered. _“I don’t know.”_ His eyes fell upon Jack, blinking a few times. The Irishman seemed to be treating this more with annoyance and inconvenience rather than outright alarm. “Jack?”

Jack looked up from his hand to stare at them and froze for a moment before suddenly cringing a bit as more blood trickled down. He shook his head. “Uh-” He thought for a moment before shaking his head again. “Well I mean-it’s just-”

“ _Just what?”_ Felix pressed.

Jack let out a small sigh. “I don’t get memories whenever ye guys break a clock, because I’m the one winding back time. _I already remember everything that’s happened in this place._ But ever since Cry used it...now the book is confused.”

“Jack, it’s a _book_ , it can’t get confused-” Ken started, to which Jack winced slightly.

“You would think. It’s not just a-look, I’m still not a hundred percent certain how exactly it works, okay?” Jack shook his head. “I’m not a hundred percent sure how it works even after all the times I’ve used it but ever since Cry used it in a past loop, I think it’s somehow...binding and reflecting and amplifying. It’s linked us in some sort of way, at least. _I don’t get memories when we break a clock_ , because I already remember everything that’s happened in here. But now whenever a clock breaks and I’m in the same room as Cry, he gets one of my memories instead of one of his own. And then we both get nosebleeds and slight headaches-” His nose wrinkled. “Again, I don’t _get_ it. I don’t know how it works, I just...all I know is that’s just how it goes.”

“And you didn’t find this important enough to _mention?”_ Cry demanded incredulously.

Jack shook his head. “ _Again, I don’t know how this is happening,”_ he repeated. “I don’t know _why_ this is happening. And it’s not like I really got all that much of a chance to mention it before you decided to go _breaking_ a clock with both of us in the room-”

“Goddammit, Jack, _still-”_ Cry began feeling just a tinge of annoyance. Even so, he was unable to deny the slight relief he simultaneously felt that at least this answered _one_ of the many questions he had about this place.

“Well...well what happened in the vision?” Felix asked apprehensively, frowning. “Cry-?”

“Ethan,” Cry replied grimly. “It was Ethan dying. And I think the monster called Ryuuzu.” He turned to Jack. “Wasn’t it?”

Jack’s eyes dropped back down to the floor, a frown on his face as he shuffled uncomfortably, guilt weighing on his features and every aspect of him.

“...I’m sure it was,” he replied quietly, sounding somewhat subdued. “That’s still not specific enough though. There were several loops-”

“I think he _blew himself up,”_ Cry specified.

A pause before Jack replied, “Yeah. That sounds about right. It’s still not specific enough though.”

A grim silence settled over the group before Felix pulled his stare away and shook his head. “ _Fuck.”_

“So Ethan shouldn’t be using that book after all, huh?” Ken asked.

“The book he found in and of itself I think is fine,” Jack reassured. “It’s just that one _spell_ from it-”

“ _No! Please no, please-!”_

The panicked if not somewhat muffled shriek was enough to make everyone jump and tense, having nearly forgotten the reason they’d even come out in light of their most recent discovery. Everyone exchanged looks.

“...We’ll talk about this later,” Felix said, abruptly moving to head out of the room and into the short, narrow corridor that led out to the larger one connected to the main second floor hall. “Once we find the new person and get them to safety, we’re going to have to have a sit-down to talk about all this. And I expect you _not to hold anything back, Jack._ ”

Jack frowned, lowering his head and staring at the floor as he moved to follow the others out of the room. When they entered into the larger corridor, they looked around, unable to see anyone.

“Are you _fucking kidding me?”_ Felix griped, now thoroughly annoyed. “Goddammit I know they don’t wanna end up dead but if they could _stop running for three freaking minutes-”_

As the group headed back towards the main hall, Cry immediately moved to head over to the camcorder but his attention was drawn elsewhere by the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Everyone exchanged looks before the Swede finally shook his head, making it to the top of the stairs and pausing to look down. No sign of anyone, not visibly at least, but they could hear the footsteps fading on the first floor.

“Hey! If you need help, we’re right up…” Felix began in a call, but then his voice faded a bit as footsteps did similar. “...Here.” He sighed in frustration, glancing back at the others with a helpless shrug. “...Well…”

“I guess it’s downstairs then,” Ken suggested.

Cry nodded slightly, casting a glance to Jack to see the Irishman looking uneasy. “Jack?”

“I’m not…” Jack hesitated, then shook his head. “Nevermind.”

“ _Jack-_ ”

“It’s nothing, I just...I have a bad feeling,” Jack replied. “But _again_ , this has never actually happened before in a loop, so-” He paused before adding, “If we’d have listened to my bad feeling last time, the last two we found probably would’ve gotten killed too.”

“ _You_ almost got killed,” Ken pointed out. “Bad things still happened-”

“Yes, bad things still happened but I think this bad feeling is more so just a paranoia of the unknown.” Jack frowned, still looking somewhat uncertain in spite of his words. “This is more so an issue of just...getting more so outside of my comfort zone than anything else.”

“It’s bad when you can actually call all this a _comfort zone,”_ Cry muttered.

“So...we going downstairs or…?” Ken questioned, glancing over at the others.

Felix shrugged. “I mean, if there’s someone else down there, I don’t think we really have that much of a choice,” he reasoned. “We can’t just let whoever wandered in here now just get mauled. Finding and rescuing them is the only reason we’re even out here.”

Cry continued to eye Jack, a frown on his face. Maybe it was some sort of weird side-effect from sharing memories, maybe it was his own sentiment just in agreement, but for some reason, he couldn’t help but feel the same edgings of apprehension. Something didn’t seem right here, he had the feeling he’d made a point about this earlier, a theory or something, but just... _which one was it?_ ”

“I think if we go down there though, we need to be careful as all hell,” he finally concluded in negotiation between instinct and reality. “I mean, even more so than we have been. After all, we can’t forget what happened to Ethan-”

“Wait a minute, what exactly happened to Ethan?” Jack questioned, eyes a bit wide.

“You remember how he said he ran into Anti, right?” Ken reminded. Jack nodded silently. “Anti was posing as you. Lured him out and away from the group before trying to _kill_ him.”

Jack looked grim for a split second but then made a face. “...Yeah. Actually. That sounds pretty much like him. Anti, I mean, he’d do that-” But then he shook his head, expression and tone shifting over to somewhat hopeful in spite of his own worry. “But I’m sure Anti spoke with my voice? Or a layered voice? The voice we heard out here wasn’t either of those, so…”

“So maybe it’s not him downstairs-” Cry’s conclusion was cut off by a shriek downstairs, causing them all to exchange reluctant looks. But finally Felix sighed and shook his head, making his way down the stairs, followed by the others.

“Coming from towards the bathrooms?” he asked as they moved to turn off the stairs.

“Towards the bathrooms, yeah,” Cry confirmed, the group moving to head down the corridor and towards the spot where they’d found the Patricks, picking up pace. Sure enough, they caught sight of Steve standing in front of the door Ethan had staggered out of earlier and froze, not making a sound.

“ _Nonononono-”_

The begging sounded pained now, desperate, holding the monster’s attention. The monster moved to cross the threshold, disappearing from their view as they heard it creaking down the stairs.

“...We might actually have to fight our way out of this one,” Cry noted grimly.

Felix nodded but looked tense and not nearly as prepared for this as he probably would’ve preferred to.

“We going in with any kind of plan?” Ken questioned nervously, fingering something in his pocket.

“Yeah. Not to die,” Cry concluded before moving forward, taking up the front of the group as he readied his knife and prepared himself for anything. In an attempt of rapidly-diminishing optimism, _any_ at all, he added, “...Hey. At least it’s Steve, right? Not Ryuuzu or Philippe or… Just Steve?”

“‘Just’ Steve,” Jack grumbled, shaking his head. “We’re still going to fuckin’ die.”

“We’ll do our best not to.”

The group quickly headed to the door and turned inside, moving cautiously down the stairs. The stairs weren’t all that wide either-much like the tiny corridors between hall and room, this too was about narrow enough for single-file.

“Seriously, why am I up front?” Cry muttered under his breath. “I’m the one with a _knife_.”

“Sorry, probably should’ve gone first,” Ken muttered. The group reached the bottom of the stairs, pausing in the small room to take in their surroundings. “Basement?”

Jack nodded. “Basement,” he affirmed. “There’s a level below us, too, um-the annex.”

"I'm not seeing anyone," Felix muttered as his eyes flickered around. "No blood, no signs of struggle..."

"I'm not really hearing anything anymore either," Cry muttered.

"Maybe the person's hiding?" Ken suggested, although doubt betrayed his tone.

"Or maybe this really is a trap," Jack muttered nervously, glancing back up the stairs. After a moment, he pushed lightly between the others to the door on the other side, opening it and peering through, into the much larger empty room. "Nobody in here..." he whispered. He bit his lip and frowned, uncertainty infiltrating his features, his arm tightening just a little bit around the book and his body tensed to run-just in case. Finally turning back to the others, he continued, "Guys, I don't think we need to be down here. This has trap written all over it-"

And that was when a slam suddenly broke the silence from the top of the stairs.

The rest of the group whipped around, Cry immediately bolting up the stairs to try and open the door again. After a moment of rattling the doorknob he stopped. Turned. Looked down at everyone and after a moment, quietly affirmed their fears.

"Guys? It's locked."

"Fucking-" Felix began, but his words were cut off by a sudden loud cackle that emanated from everywhere around them yet nowhere at all.

A cackle that sounded eerily like Jack's.

"Well. Fuck. Looks like it _was_ a trap after all," Jack grumbled. As he looked around, he called irritably to the air, _“Seriously, Anti, fuck you-!”_

Ken turned to Jack. "Jack? Is there another way out of the basement?"

Jack shook his head. "If there is, I haven't found it yet," he confessed.

"Damn..." Felix whispered as Cry headed back down the stairs to join them. “Guess there wasn’t another fucking person after all.”

"Anti's trying to keep us all separate, I guess. Not gonna lie, he's doing a hell of a good job of it," Cry concluded. "Well...Jack, is there a _key_ to the basement door? More importantly, do you actually have it _with_ you? Or at least know where it is?"

Jack frowned, thinking for a moment. “I-yes, no and yes. There _is_ one and it’s hidden, it's just..." He looked back at the door to the next room with a frown. "It's a bit of a ways. I mean-there's a lot of rooms down here, but surprisingly not a lot of hiding places. For a key or for us," he confessed.

Felix sighed, running a hand back through his hair as he looked around. "Well, uh-" He glanced back at the door once more before looking back over to the group with a helpless shrug. "I mean, I guess we don't really have that much of a choice. Right? We've gotta get out of here one way or another, so..."

"Yeah," Cry agreed grimly. "We're also know for sure that there's a monster roaming around down here, so..."

"Yeah, more careful than usual," Ken finished. "If that's even a thing."

Jack hesitated as he thought on their predicament, eyes focused on the floor for a moment, then looked back up with realization. "Ah-" The exclamation drew the attention of his companions, who all turned to look at him questioningly.

"One of the cells is actually down here," Jack explained. He then hesitated, realizing they might not actually know what he was talking about. "Uh-there are cells in this house. One of them is down here. None of the monsters I've seen so far have been able to bust through steel bars, so if we end up chased, that's probably going to be our best bet for safety."

"If we have a key," Ken pointed out, to which Jack gave a tiny, weak grin at that.

"Now that's actually a key I _do_ have," he assured. "Uh-okay. So if anything happens, if we somehow end up getting separated or scattered or chased or whatever the fuck-" He passed through the door to the next room, walking in just enough to gesture to the door next to it as he was followed in by the others. "The other door in here-the one across the room? That one’s just a dead end. But the door over there goes to the rest of the basement. If you go straight on ahead through a couple rooms and just _keep_ on going down a long corridor until you eventually get to the end, then turn right, that should take you to where the cell is. Which might be a bit convenient for us anyway, because that's also the direction we need to go in to find the basement key-except it's gonna be a right turn to the room where it should be." He paused as he thought over his directions for a moment. “There’s also an adjacent left hallway attached that takes a long, more convoluted sort of route that will get you onto the same path, but I think we’ll be in much better standing if we take the simpler, more straightforward route.”

"Sounds like a plan," Cry agreed. "Head there if we get chased, head there if any of us end up getting lost." He nodded in approval. "I can get behind that."

"Better than no plan at all," Felix agreed. Turning to Jack, he added, "Alright, so I'm pretty sure none of us have ever actually been down here at least not in this loop, so...lead the way."

Jack nodded, moving to head to the door he'd gestured to, the one that was supposed to lead to the rest of the basement and opened the door.

"Hopefully most of the doors down here aren’t gonna be locked..." he muttered as he did. "'Cause I don't got a whole lotta basement room keys overall and most of the few I do are hidden."

The group passed through the next door and into a hallway, moderately sized that forked on ahead and to the left-they continued forward. It was a relief upon noticing that they wouldn't have to travel single-file, that they'd have room to run, even to hold their ground if need be-but that also meant that if it was a massive monster like Ryuuzu, it'd be able to fit somewhat better in the process of chasing them. The group remained silent, making their way down the straight empty hall. There were no signs of decoration here, white walls and empty halls. When they reached another door, the group passed through and into another large, empty room, which they quickly crossed.

"Lots of empty rooms down here," Felix whispered under his breath. "Guess Anti ran out of uses for them at some point."

"It's gonna happen eventually in a big place like this," Ken agreed quietly. Reaching the next door on the other side of the room, they passed through it and headed down another long, straight hall, turning left once they reached the end and making their way into another room.

"Jack, the empty rooms," Cry asked. "Do they actually have any clocks hidden in there somewhere?"

Jack considered for a moment, thinking back. "I..." He thought for a moment longer before replying, "I think there actually _are_ clocks in them, yeah. I mean-we didn't exactly check a whole lot of the empty rooms down here for them. But I think I actually do remember at one point we got one to drop out of one of the light fixtures up above-" He thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Uh-no, actually that's not completely accurate. I mean, that's not how it happened."

"I was gonna ask how we actually managed to reach that," Cry muttered.

Jack shook his head. "We were fighting one of the monsters. One of the _big_ ones. The monster's head brushed against it and it kinda just toppled..."

Cry made a face behind the mask as his eyes swept the new room. This one was actually somewhat furnished, crowded even. The room in and of itself wasn't very large, only adding to the cramped feeling. The only objects occupying the room was a large black table that sat in the center, surrounded by chairs.

"We should...probably find the clock in here. Break it," he suggested softly. But he was eyeing the three doors in the room also, the one they'd just come through, another he suspected was connected to the roundabout way, and the one leading on to the next area. So many doors and so little space...it would make things really easy for an ambush. Felix frowned.

"I'm not entirely sure that's a very good idea..." he remarked, unsure and worried. He seemed to be having similar reservations.

"Maybe, but we've gotta right time throughout this place-" Cry shook his head. "And anyway, Jack, you said we needed to find more keys to down here?"

"We...might," Jack confessed. "Unless Anti's left the other doors unlocked. I'm not completely sure he'd make things that easy on us, unless it was to outright taunt-" He winced slightly. "...Which he would also do."

"Just a quick search of this place, then we'll figure out what needs to be done," Cry concluded. "Besides, nobody ever said we actually had to break the clocks as soon as we found them, right? We could just wait until we got some place safe-"

"Like the hidden room. Or one of the cells-" Felix nodded at this, realization dawning across his features. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. That might actually work out then."

"Not many places a clock could be hiding," Ken pointed out as he scooted around the room, checking each of the chairs.

Cry glanced over at Jack. "We noticed it's probably mostly biological stuff that gets reset in this place, like us when we die. But there's a lot of physical stuff like duplicates...uh...or changes made to the mansion that just...don't reset?"

Jack watched, rubbing absently under the bridge of his nose with his sleeve in an attempt to remove some of the dried blood from his mustache. "Yeah. I mean-not _everything_ duplicates. If it's brought into the mansion, it normally will, but if it's already kind of a part of the mansion..." He shook his head. "But if you're wondering about the clocks, yeah, I'm still a little curious about that myself. I haven't found any remains of them or anything, so I mean...maybe they all just repair themselves." He rubbed the back of his neck in thought. "I dunno."

"Maybe the clocks end up being created from our own memories?" Ken suggested. He shrugged. "I know it sounds crazy, but at this point I don't think it's the craziest thing that's happened here."

"I hear that," Cry muttered in agreement.

As Ken and Cry checked the chairs and Jack checked under the table, Felix scooted around to try one of the doors on the back wall, then the other on the front wall before shaking his head.

"They're both locked," he informed. "This is a dead end."

"Jack, you said you didn't have many of the keys to down here?" Cry asked.

"Uh-I have the key to that door-" Jack pointed to the door on the back wall. "But not the other one. And that’s the one we actually need to use to get to the room where the basement key should be hidden."

"I'm kinda surprised you don't have them all already," Ken pointed out. “Or at least all of them hidden already? As many loops as you’ve been through and all.”

Jack winced a bit at this. "I-well." He paused, then continued. "First loop I had some of the keys on my person, but the only thing that actually travels with me when I do a reset is the book. After that, once I started learning, I started making it a mission to find as many keys as possible and-if it starts looking like a reset is imminent-hide them. Unfortunately Anti started wising up because this is sort of his place already and even as big as it all is, there's only so many hiding spots-" He shook his head. "Then I started trying to guard some of them with set puzzles and stuff. Anti started wising up to those too, especially the more and more cycles that happened. So...stuff I think I can still actually manage to trip him up on, and through trial and error I have found some pretty decent hiding spots, but I can really only manage so much."

He hesitated for a moment. "A couple of times we actually have managed to get the front door key, but I ended up resetting it anyway because majority vote with the very few that were left was always to try again and get everyone out. And then there was the one loop..." He frowned in both confusion and regret. "All the keys had just suddenly disappeared. I mean, _before we even made it to the house, everything_ had disappeared from their hiding spots. It was almost as if..." But then his voice trailed off, his expression still troubled as he shook his head. "N-nevermind. I don't think-"

"Jack?" Cry asked. "If you think you've got a theory or something..."

Jack shifted uncomfortably, hesitating.

"Like Tyler mentioned, if we're all gonna get out of here alright, you're going to have to tell us stuff," Felix agreed. "Don't hold anything back, just tell us."

"Well I mean-it's just-" Jack drew in a breath. “When we arrived at the mansion, it wasn’t just all the keys missing from their hiding spots. I mean-there were a few things that were different. Things that I don’t remember ever actually happening?” He shrugged. “But I-but this place is so big and there’s so many people-and there’s _so fuckin’ much to remember-_ I figured it’d probably just happened in the loop before or _one_ of the loops before and it just slipped my notice or maybe Anti was just fucking with me and changed things up before we arrived-”

“Wait, no. That sounds like _you_ experienced a time loop like we did,” Ken pointed out.

“Huh, kinda does, doesn’t it?” Cry agreed. Turning his gaze on Jack, he asked, “Jack, are you _sure_ all I’ve done with the book is just heal you?”

Jack shook his head, adamant. “Nobody’s turned back time but me. I’m sure of it. If I’d experienced a time loop, my memory would’ve been wiped just as much as you guys. Someone else would be going through all of this and I…” He drew in a deep breath before continuing, “I-I mean I’m not _sure_ , but I don’t think I would’ve even remembered the first loop if that were the case. Besides, Anti probably would’ve outright _murdered_ them.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a change of his current plans,” Felix pointed out.

Jack shrugged, still looking troubled, but this time ducked fully under the table and disappeared for a moment before his voice sounded from underneath it.

“Found the key, at least. Found _a_ key, anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Down into the depths of the basement we go with at least one of the major questions answered! What horrors await our heroes next? But anyway, thanks so much for all the support; really helps a lot with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	33. Chapter 32

“Well at least that’s a thing, I guess,” Ken noted, watching as Jack crawled back out to emerge on the side closest to the door they needed to head through next. The Irishman jammed the newly-found key into the lock and gave it a twist, sure enough hearing the satisfying _click_ of it unlocking. As he opened the door and peered down the long empty hall for a moment, he then twisted around to look back at the others and gave them a wave to move forward.

Each empty room brought relief but at the same time amped the anxiety as they all knew the risk was gradually increasing. Steve was down here somewhere, wandering about or hiding. If they hadn’t come across him _yet_...really, it was only a matter of time.

The group gradually shimmied around the table and followed him out into the hallway, finally reaching the end where it split left and right. Jack paused at this point, pointing right.

“That way’s the cell,” he informed them. Pointing to his left, he added, “That way’s to the room we need to get to. The key we need _should_ be in there.”

“This has ‘trap’ written all over it,” Ken breathed.

“Yeah it does. Keep your weapons ready,” Felix muttered, making sure his flamethrower-or ‘Flamey’, as he’d started to call it-was at the ready. The group turned left and made their way down the short remainder of hallway until they finally came to a door. Jack hesitated for just a moment, glancing back at everyone just to make sure they all had weapons at the ready and were tensed enough to take off before putting his hand on the knob and giving it a twist, yanking the door open-

No Steve.

No monster.

At this, the group released a collective breath they’d all been holding. The room looked to be a dead end but at least it was _bigger_ with a long dark table and a chair at each end. A couple bookcases sat in diagonal corners, an armoire in the back right corner.

“Okay, let’s hurry up, find the key and get the fuck outta here,” Felix suggested.

“I hear that,” Cry agreed, following the group inside and making sure to lock the door behind them.

The group immediately spread out, beginning to search every nook and cranny of the room. It didn’t take long for Ken to find the clock at least, holding it up. “Found another clock,” he announced, glancing around at everyone else. “We really need a bag or something to start putting these in.”

“Just hang onto it for the time being,” Cry advised, shrugging as he turned his attention back to the bookcase and continuing to root around for the key. “We’ll see about finding a bag or something to start keeping them in once we’re back in the safe room.”

“Oh hey, what the fuck is this?” Felix muttered as he looked underneath the table, hand pressing up in a certain spot. A sudden drag of something heavy was heard across the floorboards as the bookcase towards the front of the room suddenly slid to the side, revealing a doorway.

Everyone turned to look, stared for a few seconds. Then finally turned to Jack, who continued to stare with surprise on his features.

“Jack?” Ken asked.

Jack shook his head, blue eyes a bit wide. “This is new to me,” he replied. Making his way over to the door and not finding a handle, he pressed his hand lightly to the surface and slid it inside, taking a step across the threshold.

“Jack, hold on…” Cry began, moving to follow but stopping just behind the Irishman to look around.

This was different than all the other rooms by far, there was absolutely no doubt about that. Instead of the standard drywall, the walls were dirt and stone. The wooden floor abruptly ended at the dirt suddenly beneath their feet and it seemed like a tunnel that led to around a corner.

“Oh, that don’t look sketchy at all…” Ken remarked, peering into the dimly-lit tunnel.

“Sketchy, maybe, but…” Cry hesitated, not even sure if he should dare to hope at this point. It just seemed too _easy_ , but- “What if this is another way out? What if the monster that chased Matt and Steph left the house through here and it can just...come and go like that?”

“Or it could be where the monsters are being kept when they’re not roaming the house-” Felix started, to which Jack shook his head.

“It’s not,” the latter assured. “Believe me, I’ve been around that area. It’s not, it’s...it’s much further upstairs.”

Everyone stared for a moment before Felix finally spoke again. “...Comforting. Good to know.” He shook his head, taking a few steps into the tunnel himself as he looked around. “Then maybe it _could_ be another way out. I guess who really knows at this point…”

“Should we-?” Cry started, but his words abruptly fell short.

Fell short, because suddenly they were all plunged into darkness.

“What the fu-”

“Power’s been cut-”

“Oh, well of course it has-”

“Well, at least we have phones,” Felix noted, shoving the can of hairspray under one arm to pull out his phone and open the cracked screen, lighting his face up eerily. “More importantly, our phones got flashlights, so-” A pause that was soon broken by a mumbled Swedish curse, then a louder English one. “Well, fuck, looks like the fall busted more than just my screen. Goddammit.”

Shoving his phone back into his pocket, he then held up the object in his other hand with a flat look. “Well. At least I’ve got a lighter-” Felix announced, the sound of a soft metallic click heard, followed by a couple rapid clicks before a flame suddenly lept up to illuminate the Swede’s features once again. There was a few seconds as this processed before the man looked around and softly cursed. “Well that doesn’t light up nearly as much as a game would lead you to think, now does it?”

Jack winced slightly. “I’d volunteer mine, but my phone stopped working entirely after 48 loops,” he reported, pulling out his phone and holding it up so everyone could see the lit screen filled with glitching green static. Everyone stared for a moment before Cry finally broke the silence.

“Dude. There are so many questions with you.”

“I know,” Jack confessed. “This is actually one I can’t answer but I sort of just figured it involved tech not meshing well with the time-turning magic...or something. I don’t fuckin’ know.”

“Uh-” Cry fished his own phone out of his pocket and turned it on, then flipping on the flashlight. “Okay. Well at least mine’s working.” He winced a bit as he added, “Not for very long though. Man, I knew I should’ve charged this thing up before heading out…”

“Here, let me-” Ken offered, opening his phone and flipping his flashlight on as well. Shining it around the area, his eyebrows raised. “Huh.”

“What?” Cry asked.

“I’ve still got eighty-three percent on my phone.”

Felix smirked a bit at this. “Well, congratulations, Ken. You’re finally the most successful youtuber in the room.”

Ken chuckled at this. “Wow,” he remarked. “I feel so honored.”

“Yeah! Outta the four of us, I think you’re now the least likely to trip over something while running like a cheesy horror cliche.”

“You think if we all survive this, I’ll be able to bring some of that luck back to my channel?”

“Let’s not jinx it,” Cry warned with an unseen smirk.

Felix glanced over at Jack, grinning a bit wider as he noted the faintest glimmers of a smile on the Irishman’s joy-starved face. “So! We’ve got two flashlights and a lighter. We have a locked door behind us-”

Jack winced a bit at this. “We do until for the moment,” he pointed out. “But we’re going to need a plan for when we try to leave.”

“I think the plan if we do end up getting attacked is that I burn off Steve’s freaking face and then some.” Felix turned fully to Jack now. “Jack, do you know where a circuit breaker might be in the house?”

Jack shook his head. “No,” he admitted. “ _Again_ , this is actually another one of those things that has never happened before. I’ve never had to fiddle around with the power in here; it’s always remained stable.”

“Yeah, so this was definitely a thing done by Anti and not the storm,” Ken muttered.

“So maybe we should try the tunnel then,” Cry suggested. “I mean, I know we don’t know where it leads, but-” He shrugged helplessly. “I dunno. Just-if it ends up being a way out, that solves so many of our problems from the get-go.”

Felix sighed, looking back towards the door they came through before turning back to the others. “Fine. _Fine._ Let’s go investigate the creepy tunnel and hope Steve doesn’t come up to eat our faces or something.” His can of hairspray at the ready in his other hand, he moved forward to the front of the group with Ken to lead the way down the tunnel.

The tunnel proved wide enough to fit at least a few people shoulder to shoulder at a time and the ceiling was surprisingly high. As the group pressed forward, staying far closer together than they did throughout most of their journey in the basement, nobody said a word as apprehension and wariness had pulled over them like a thick blanket, all senses now on hyperfocus. It was only several feet before they had to turn left and continued on for a short while.

Nobody dared say a word until Cry spoke.

“Does anybody else hear that?” he whispered, causing the group to collectively stop.

The sound of their footsteps ceased.

The sound of dripping and water hammering down did not.

“Is that...rain?” Ken finally whispered.

“That doesn’t sound like a wall separating it,” Felix noted.

Everyone seemed to exchange glances, even in the darkness, before starting to move again-this time at a somewhat faster pace. Before long the ground became somewhat soft, their shoes sinking just slightly in the forming mud and water that was starting to pool just around the corner. The men took another left, reaching a large but shallow puddle and…

A dead end.

Nothing but a damned dead end, their sighs and grumbles evidence of frustration and disappointment that dropped down to crush them all like a thousand-pound weight-

“Guys. Look up.”

Cry’s advice directed everyone’s eyes upward, up towards a large hole that gaped with the darkness of the stormy night. The sound of rain outside was almost a roar, echoing faintly throughout the rest of the tunnel like a continuous white noise in the background. The smell of wet earth and rain wafted in and down below, a break in the mansion’s air that they suddenly realized with contrast was so stifling and stale. It looked like someone had made a doorway and started to put some stairs in to lead down into the tunnel, but there were no signs of stairs to be found. Come to think of it, there wasn’t really _any_ sign of how to get up there to be found.

“How the fuck are we supposed to get up there? That’s got to be at least thirty feet up,” Felix demanded, finally voicing what everyone was undoubtedly thinking.

“Maybe we can climb the rocks?” Ken wondered, eyeing the wall-although his own suggestion was full of doubt. After a moment he amended, “Maybe _one_ of us could climb the rocks?”

Cry reached out to touch one of the rocks that gleamed in the light of Felix’s flame and their own flashlights. “Probably not,” he replied, hating to be the bearer of bad news. “Or at least, I’m not so sure we should really try. These rocks are all slick-” Not just a bit damp, but with water steadily trickling down over them from the conditions above and outside. “Someone falls-I mean-I know injury isn’t too bad of a thing if we can just heal it, but if someone were to break their neck and get killed in a fall-”

“Agreed. Grand. Just another one of Anti’s fuckin’ taunts,” Jack sighed wearily.

“Well now, I’m not so sure about that,” Ken pointed out, determined now. “Why don’t we take this back upstairs to the others? We’ll talk it over. It might actually work out _better_ than looking for the main key, provided we can just figure out a way up. And with all the people we have to figure it out with...I mean, there’s _got_ to be a way. Right?”

“Maybe…” Jack murmured.

“First thing’s first though: _getting_ to the others. Getting out of this basement. Did we even manage to find the key back in the other room?” When silence met his question, he shook his head. “Let’s go get that key before anything and then hurry out of here. The longer we stay down in the basement-”

“The more dangerous it is. Yeah,” Cry agreed.

The group immediately turned to backtrack, heading back through the tunnel and out, back into the room they were in before.

“We’ve got one more bookshelf we haven’t checked, I think,” Cry announced, hurrying over to the bookshelf that moved aside to reveal the tunnel in the first place. “It’s gotta be around here somewhere, unless Anti already hid it and moved it, maybe.”

Jack made a face. “He _would_ ,” he noted, but moved to the bookshelf, memory returning to him. “Okay, so the key...yeah, I remember exactly where I put it now…”

He reached up, grabbing one of the books off the top shelf and pulling it off-and as he did, the loud clatter of brass on hardwood shattered the silence. Everyone froze for just a moment with unnerved glances towards the door, but there wasn’t a sound. No footsteps, no monsters, nothing.

When their concerns were met with a returned silence, Jack released the breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding, reaching down to pick up the key with help of Cry’s flashlight. “Okay, got it,” he announced in a whisper as his fingers closed around the cool metal and held it up. “Now let’s get ready to get out of here before Steve or Anti or whoever the fuck else might be down here decides to show up.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Felix muttered, making his way over to the door. He paused for a moment, listening closely and waiting for the others to gather close behind him before twisting the lock and opening the door.

Nothing.

Everyone seemed to let out a sigh of relief as they shuffled out of the room and made their way down the hall. All steps were small, the group bunched close together. They could barely see much further than several or so in front of them, so all were silent in trying to rely on their other senses. Although without light of his own, Jack remained towards the front, having a better knowledge of the house overall anyway. When he reached the corner where the hallway split, he paused and held up a hand so everyone else would momentarily stop, leaning forward to peer around the corner and into the darkness.

"Okay. I'm not really seeing anything," he whispered. He searched for movement and saw none before adding, "I think it's safe to go.”

The group turned right in their last stretch to make it back to the cramped room, when it suddenly went darker, a soft curse escaping Cry. Lowering the dead phone, he glanced over at the others and they could practically hear his wince. “Sorry guys,” he murmured.

“Well, it was good while it lasted,” Felix whispered. “Ken, we’re all relying on you now.”

“Gee, a dream come true,” Ken replied, rolling his eyes a little at this in an attempt to keep some of the nerves of added pressure and suspense at bay. Upon reaching the cramped room, they began filing in once they reached it and shut the door behind them.

Almost immediately they detected something seemed off.

The room was pitch black, that wasn't really of any surprise in all honesty. No, the issue was that suddenly they could hear breathing from an extra mouth.

They could hear the heavy shifting of floorboards in a spot where nobody could _possibly_ be just yet.

All four of the men froze, peering into the darkness at the large shadow standing stock-still in front of the door they needed to get through to be on their way as Ken slowly slid his hand back over to the knob to twist it back open, not daring to lift the light to illuminate the fifth being in the room and set it off. Instead he chose to give the back of Cry's shirt a light tug in a silent gesture to back up and out as soon as possible, to which Cry did to Felix, then Felix to Jack. Jack only managed to glance back before the door by Ken reopened with a soft creak-

And that was when all hell broke loose.

"GOGOGO-"

It was undetermined just who it was that shouted in the midst of the chaos, but as the group stumbled back out into the hallway, they heard a sudden crash of chairs and the table being shoved into one corner, up against the door on the back end of the room and heavy footsteps after them.

"To the cell, to the cell-!" Jack directed as the group rushed on ahead to the end of the hall where it split off. "Hang right, gogogo-!"

Ken was the first the monster went after, the easiest target as he carried the greatest amount of light. A cry sounded out as claws suddenly came down onto his shoulder and dug into flesh, ripping fabric and muscle as they raked down his back and caused him to drop his phone, a sudden crunch sounding out followed by them all being plunged into almost total darkness.

“Ken!” Jack exclaimed, stopping and bolting over to where he last saw Ken, trying his best to follow the sound of footsteps and voice as his eyes struggled to adjust to the deeper dark as quickly as possible. Well, at least now it sounded like Ken had managed to stumble to his own little area-

Steve, _where the fuck was Steve now-?_

A yelp sounded out and suddenly they were plunged into complete darkness as the lighter went flying, skidding and spinning across the pale wooden floor before hitting the wall, the little flame pitifully lighting up its own tiny perimeter. "Felix!" Jack exclaimed, hesitating. Ken went on and waved him away, a gesture he could only barely make out at this point.

“Go, make sure Felix is okay, hurry-”

Jack hesitated a moment more before quickly moving to scoop up the lighter and rush back.

"Jack-!" Cry exclaimed, quickly twisting around.

"Felix?" Ken called, stopping for just a moment as his eyes searched the darkness of the hallway frantically.

"Shit-this lighter doesn't do-" Jack suddenly stopped, throwing down the lighter to flip open his book, thumbnail adeptly flicking at the scab on his pricked finger and pushing a dot of blood out before quickly moving to drag it around the clock on the inside of the front cover. The clock suddenly lit up with vibrant green light, to which he lifted up off the book in a glowing design with a generously-sized bubble of shimmering green surrounding it. The spell was enough, immediately illuminating the hall far more than the lighter ever could and showing Felix just up ahead and on the ground with Steve standing over him, claws raised.

"Felix!" Jack exclaimed, starting to move forward as Felix immediately tried scrambling back. Not fast enough on either of their parts as the claws suddenly came down onto and _through_ Felix's leg, drawing a scream from the Swede.

"Move!" Ken called, quickly grabbing the gun he'd borrowed from J-Fred and taking struggled aim.

Jack quickly moved to dive out of the way as a couple shots rang out. One miss, another seemed to send Steve back with a stumbled jolt and a roar. Felix gasped in pain as the claws were ripped out with the movement, to which Jack rushed forward to grab under one of his arms and drag back while trying to simultaneously maintain the bubble of light. "What are you-help me, someone-!"

Cry immediately snapped into action, moving to do similar. "C'mon, c'mon, guys. C'mon."

It didn't take long for Steve to gather itself again and take another step towards them, to which Ken took another shot. This one only grazed the creature, eliciting a growl from its throat.

"...Okay, now it's pissed-" Jack whispered, cut off when it suddenly charged forward. Jack rolled out of the way, clutching his book and causing the magic to flicker out and plunge them back into darkness. A moment later and the spell flickered back on, showing Jack crouched by the wall with the book open again with Cry and Felix on the other side of the hall, Cry keeping Felix close.

" _Shit_ , this isn't good-" Cry muttered, looking back at Ken, then Jack, then finally down at Felix. He paused for a moment, thinking, then looked back up at Jack, meeting his eyes. "...No other choice..." he whispered before quickly moving back up to his feet and beginning to sidle along the wall, just past the creature to get between it and the door.

"Hey! Hey, Steve!" he suddenly called.

The monster suddenly jerked around, eyeing him with a growl.

Cry waved his arms. "Yeah, hey, I'm talking to you! Betcha can't catch me, huh?"

The creature turned entirely just in time to see Cry take off down the hall before tearing after him. Jack's eyes widened as he jumped up and started to take a step in their direction.

"Cry!" he exclaimed, but his call met deaf ears as the door slammed behind the monster in response.

Ken stood frozen for just a moment before lowering the gun and shaking his head, putting the safety back on and tucking it away as best he could before hurrying over to Felix, clutching his own shoulder. "Jack!" he called over. "We’ll go grab Cry in a minute. For the moment, Felix needs help."

Jack hesitated, lingering as he stared at the door with uncertainty-but then finally shook his head and made his way over to Felix, crouching down next to him and bringing the spell down onto his leg.

"Try not to make too much noise," Jack muttered as he focused on the spell, blood already beginning to draw back into Felix's calf. He struggled to bite back a wince as he felt a sharp pang of pain on his own stomach, pushing it from his mind and ignoring it as much as possible. Ken stood guard nearby, keeping a watchful eye out with his hand still gripping the gun. "I know it's gonna hurt, but shouting could end up drawing Steve back to us." To Ken, he added, "Ken, you're next."

“Cry,” Felix urged. “We’ve got to find Cry-” But his words fell short as he soon bit his lip, tensing and clenching fists that shook with pain as the wound began to heal back up. At the point that the muscle and sinew and flesh all began to seal back up he let out a pained grunt, eyes squeezing shut in a wince. Jack frowned.

“I know,” he replied quietly. “Believe me, I know.” He didn’t like this, not even a little bit. This was too similar, too close to the first loop. The first time Cry died, after all…

But now the basement was locked. He didn’t even have the _option_ of leaving the area and getting to one of the rooms upstairs, to try and find a hiding spot or otherwise. The branching corridor to the roundabout way did split off to another room, but they didn’t even try that route earlier. There was no way of knowing the door to that room would be unlocked or not, no way of knowing if it’d just end up being a dead end or not...and even then, he could only imagine how much more disorienting it would be to someone trying to navigate through this darkness, especially with all memories of the area gone.

If the door going down the extra corridor was locked, all that would be between the basement door and that monster would be mostly empty rooms and dead ends with hardly any good hiding places in sight.

Cry could very likely die.

Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Secrets are being unlocked! People are getting hurt! Things are happening! We'll see how things turn out in the next chapter. But in the meantime, thanks so much for all your support, it helps so much in writing and posting. And keep on theorizing, seriously, it really helps out with my pacing and whatnot! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	34. Chapter 33

Cry bolted through the door, through the darkness, stumbling around the table for a few moments, trying to shove chairs in the narrow space between the table and the wall to create as many obstructions as possible. He ended up half-leaping over the rest of the chairs and shoving them wherever as soon as he heard the door open behind him. When he reached where he was positive the door was, his hand slid about the wall frantically until it came to rest on the doorknob and he wasted no time twisting it and yanking the door open, running through and slamming it shut behind him. Back out into the corridor and he bolted as fast as he could, running at a bit of an angle until his right hand could reach out and touch the wall to follow along for as long as possible. When he reached the corner, he tightly rounded it and continued along his path, finally hitting the small bit of wall next to the door and following it until he reached the knob.

Behind him he could hear the door to the other room open and shut, hear footsteps racing after him down the hall. He pulled the door in front of him open and slid through, slamming it shut behind him and fumbling with the lock.

He barely managed.

He jumped back with a small stumble as he heard the creature slam into the door, listening to it bang and rattle the knob. On one hand, the sounds were comforting, a sign that he still had the creature's attention and that it didn't just turn back to go after his friends.

On the other hand, it was concerning because he now had the thing's attention just in general.

Taking a couple more steps back from the door and towards the center of the room, he paused for another moment as he listened to the door, eyes struggling to adjust to the pitch black. Not that there was much to see in this room though-it _was_ completely empty. Still, if he was wrong and there happened to be anything in here hiding, in waiting...well he'd be thoroughly fucked. Noises on the other side of the door aside though, he didn't hear anything in the room _with_ him, so he'd just go on ahead and call that a plus.

Still, that didn't help his current problem.

"What the hell do I do now?" he wondered quietly, beginning to move again. At first it was just steps back, then he turned fully to head to the door that went out into the next corridor. He had no light, no key out to the basement, certainly no real plan-

And what of his friends? He wasn't even sure if he actually had any way back to them. They _were_ going to be okay, right? Maybe- _hopefully_ -they made it to the cell where they should be safe, but with a monster between them and the basement door…

"Have to find a way back to them..." he whispered under his breath, slipping through the next door and into the next corridor. "Or at least a flashlight." His fingers grazed the wall next to him as he continued on, looking around and peering futilely into the darkness. "Huh...I wonder, there was another hallway this way...wasn't there?"

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, and Jack did mention some kind of roundabout way or something didn’t he? Taking this route probably led back to the cramped room. Okay so maybe head down that hall, make it over and around and then slip off to the cell if he could manage.

His musings were soon answered as the feel of the wall eventually ended, turning right and into what he could only assume was the other hallway. "Okay..." he murmured. "Just gonna go on and turn this way…”

And if it was locked? Then what the hell would he do? He could try and find the key but...ugh. Well he might find it, but here’s hoping he wouldn’t actually have to at all.

He continued down the hallway, it was short this time, and eventually reached the end. His hand slid across the wall a few times in search for a knob, finally coming to rest on the metal and giving it a twist. To his relief, it opened-dimming that relief just a little bit though was the creak that broke the silence and caused him to freeze, straining his ears for the sound of any sort of movement.

Nothing.

He let out a baited breath in a sigh as he crossed the threshold and walked into the room, looking around but to no avail. No good...he'd just have to go about this like a borderline blind person and rely on all of his other senses. His hands reached out in front of him, feeling the air for anything and keeping his ears focused for even the tiniest of sounds. His breath nearly caught when they made contact with something solid, but after a moment of his fingers glancing across the surface, he quickly recognized the feeling of leather, felt a bit of give and realized it was cushion underneath his fingertips. Tracing around the object until he finally reached the end of it, he soon deduced that it was a sofa. Just a sofa.

"Thank god..." he whispered under his breath, making his way around the furniture to take a couple steps in front of it. He got about a step and a half before his knees bumped into something, which further investigation he realized was a large coffee table. He shook his head, letting out a soft, frustrated sigh. This was getting ridiculous. He _needed_ some light in whatever form or fashion. He was nothing but a sitting duck like this.

Feeling along the surface of the coffee table, his hand knocked into something, hearing it tumble onto its side and roll a bit away from him.

"Wait-no-no-shit-" he whispered, hand struggling to find where the object moved to based on its sound and his sense of touch alone. "C'mon, don't be a dick-"

His fingers soon came into contact with something rubber that felt like a grip of sorts, wrapped around something cylindrical-and feeling along it for a moment as he lifted it while straightening up, he quickly realized with an enormous sense of relief that it was a flashlight. He fumbled with it for a few moments, searching around for the way to turn it on and in his growing impatience, nearly growled. But then his thumb slid over a spot that finally allowed him to press down, followed by a tiny 'click' and a circle of light appearing.

The flashlight wasn't very powerful, that much he'd readily admit. It didn't really go very far and it was still fairly dim but he was just relieved enough to have light in general, be it in any way, shape or form. At the same time though...

Something about this was causing the hairs to stand up on the back of his neck. Maybe it was just the fact that all of a sudden he was acutely aware of just how much this all seemed to be _way_ too much like a horror game.

Or maybe it was the fact that suddenly finding a flashlight out in the open in an area he'd wandered into-hell, even the fact that he managed to actually _enter_ this room without a key-seemed _way_ too convenient. Yes, it was very possible one of them had just left the flashlight right here, just like this in a previous loop. Maybe expecting something like this, potentially? But something gnawed at him, he really doubted it. After all, considering the circumstances he was in, considering what was going on…

 _At best_ , one of the monsters was still roaming around down here. Or it could very well be worse, it could be not just Steve but Anti as well, and although he hadn't yet had a direct encounter with the house's owner...

No. No, in a way he sort of did. Not in this time loop, not yet. But Jack said they shared memories sometimes. This made sense, this all made _so much sense_ now, because that told him for sure that the 'evil Jack'-so to speak, was never actually Jack at all. It now gave him a much better understanding of Anti as well as how that asshole tended to operate.

And if those experiences weren't enough to give him the feeling that Anti _would_ go making all of this into a game, of course he would. Of course he would, because when Jack dove into this headfirst, didn't Anti propose it as a sort of game from the get-go?

...Yeah. He didn't _want_ to be paranoid, but paranoia might actually keep him alive in this case. Based on what he knew thus far, this all seemed like a trap, or at best, another one of Anti's little games.

In which case, fine. _Fine_ , so be it. He might not've been Mark or Felix or whatever, but he could do horror games too.

He could figure this out, he could manage, he could survive this.

He just had to be vigilant and careful as all hell.

"Alright, Anti. I see your game. I get it," Cry whispered under his breath as he shined the flashlight about. Around him were two other sofas, all three of them placed neatly around the table, all seemed to be made of black leather and the table also matched in color. The walls were otherwise bare but a door lay on the other side. Otherwise there seemed to be little of use, little of-

Hold on.

Walking over to the end of the sofa upon noticing a tiny glint, he reached down and scooped up the tiny cylindrical objects resting on the cushion, gleaming against the black. Further examination of its silvery surface told him that it was just as he suspected, to which he let out a soft, frustrated sigh.

"Batteries. Of course they're batteries." He held up the flashlight, eyeing it. "And let me guess, the batteries in this are already about dead anyway, huh?" Casting his gaze back down at the two batteries in his hand, he shook his head and shoved them into one of his pockets. If he had to guess, he'd figure that those two batteries were probably weak as all hell also.

Well, that seemed to confirm his suspicions, at least.

To Anti, this was definitely a game.

"Alright. You wanna go head to head in a game with me? Let's see what you've got," he said to the air with a voice more confident and challenging than he actually felt, feeling slightly silly as there was no one else in the room with him but then again...

Then again, he had the feeling Anti could hear him either way. The he might actually be _watching_ him somehow.

He cast the flashlight around once more, trying to pick up any other tiny gleams of batteries but seeing nothing.

"Bet there's gonna be some more in another room," he muttered to himself. "Alright then...uh...onward."

Reaching the other door, he placed his hand on it and gave it a twist-

Nothing.

He tried rattling it at least a couple of times but was disappointed to only get refusal in return. His brows furrowed into a frown before he turned back to the room, shining the flashlight around again. "Maybe...somewhere in here...?" he whispered. "Yeah. Go figure it wouldn't just be batteries. He's probably gonna have me looking for _keys_ too."

He made his way back over to the sofas, giving them another thorough run-over before leaning down and shining the flashlight underneath. Again, nothing. Under the coffee table? Not a single thing, because of course there wasn’t.

"Okay..." he whispered, sitting up and eyeing the cushions before making a slight face at the idea of the extra effort. "Gonna make me work for it."

He set the flashlight on the table, pointing it towards the sofa he chose to start with, and began removing the cushions one by one, occasionally picking up the flashlight to shine over the area a bit more thoroughly and get a better look at things.

Nothing.

He methodically moved to the next couch to set to work again, disappointment growing as once again, nothing of use seemed to turn up. His confidence somewhat deflated and his doubt rising, he made his way around the table to get to the next sofa and began pulling it apart as well. First cushion, nothing. Second, nothing. Of course, go figure. And there was probably going to be nothing under the next one t-

The gleam of a key stood out against the stretched fabric and he practically rolled his eyes as he reached down and picked it up.

"Of course," he whispered. "Of course it'd be that way."

Of course, there was nothing affirming that this was the key he was even looking for and he honestly wouldn't put it past Anti to be that much of a dick-but he'd have to hope that maybe it actually _was_ the right one. If this game was gonna move forward at all, anyway, it'd probably have to be.

Once again he grabbed up the flashlight and moved to his feet, crossing the room and heading over to the locked door. He raised the key to the lock, tried to jam it in-

Nothing.

"He /is/ that much of a dick," Cry hissed, soft annoyance beginning to fill his tone as he turned back around and looked around the room again. There were no other doors to try the key on, no other spots to check for more keys. He had no other choice but to backtrack.

"Great..." he whispered, letting his head drop back with his sigh. But then he shrugged helplessly. "Well." He moved to head back over to the door he came through. "Maybe there's something of use in one of the other rooms I already went through." Once again, he knew nobody could hear him at this point, and he knew that he wasn't exactly recording a video or anything. He'd certainly shut up more once officially on the move, but at the moment, his words filling the silence was a comforting enough feeling and reasoning things out verbally helped in sorting his thoughts and theories.

But seriously, all the time spent in this room already and he really wouldn't be all that surprised if Anti had been running around in the areas he'd already wandered, placing shit. Or maybe he did that already and all the stuff just got missed what with the lights off and all. He'd find out soon enough as he now at least had a flashlight.

...For now.

He winced slightly at the thought of the flashlight flickering off again and plunging him back into darkness and decided he'd try not to dwell on those sort of things for very long.

He headed back out into the corridor, shining the flashlight around as both a guide and a spotlight, hoping to pick up any other gleams be it from battery or key. Nothing...yet. _Yet._ Maybe they were just tucked away in the rooms, maybe he should go back a room…

Or forward a room, back towards the basement exit? Huh.

He _did_ recall that there was another door in the second room upon coming down the stairs, now that he thought about it-

God, _now_ he was starting to get what Jack meant about this area being very easy to get oneself turned around in. It didn’t help that all the walls were bare and many of the rooms and corridors were completely empty, either, providing zero landmarks to navigate by.

Deciding he’d try the room he had yet to see first, he turned right to head back towards the basement stairs, eventually making it back into the large empty room at the end of the hall. Cautiously he swept the flashlight beam around, relieved to find no shadows but disappointed to find no gleams, either. A frown crossed his features before he finally sighed and brought it back to settle on the door at the back of the room, the one he had yet to check. Casting a final glance around, he made his way across the room and opened the door, stepping inside and shining the flashlight around. There really wasn't much in there: a table, a chest of drawers, an armoire (at least). "Hm..." he murmured once the door was securely shut and locked behind him, searching for any little glints or gleams. There was a rug underneath the table, which he supposed he'd probably have to check under as well-he'd get to that particular spot last. For the moment, easiest places first. He checked the table, both over and under. Moving on to the chest of drawers, he pulled the top one open and was relieved to see a key lying on the bare dusty bottom. Checking a couple more drawers for batteries, he finally pulled open the bottom one, making a face upon finding nothing.

He checked the armoire, finding _a_ battery, but nothing more than that-even after checking the drawers at the bottom. “So much for a second battery…” he grumbled with a sigh, closing the doors to the armoire when he felt something fall down to the ground next to it with a clatter. He frowned, sweeping the area with light and taking a step forward when he suddenly felt the uneven surface beneath his foot, heard a sharp _crack_ as the thing gave way-

 _And suddenly he was back in the cramped basement room with his back to the third door he had yet to try, staring at Jack-no. Not Jack. Definitely not Jack, this entity had green eyes._ **_Green_ ** _,_ now _he knew for sure what the fuck was wrong with this guy’s face. That and just...the overall expression. The malice, the sadistic grin he wore as he stared him down like a predator, a cat toying with its prey. The imposter tsk'ed, and when it did it was with a voice that was layered, one voice definitely being Jack’s voice, or at least a distortion of it anyway. As if the entity was trying it on and it didn’t quite fit yet, as if he wasn’t used to using it...and then there was the other voice. The other voice sounded accented and a bit more pitched, Italian or something._

_"Cry, Cry, Cry. You really are too clever for your own good." He paused, looking the masked man over for a moment before asking, "Where did you send the others off to?"_

_"Away from you," Cry replied vaguely._

_Anti hummed softly. "Hm~ Such resistance. I suppose it doesn't really matter. It's only a matter of time before my pets catch you all. Only a matter of time before a distraught and hopeless Jack takes us all back all over again-"_

_"We are gonna stop you," Cry replied, feeling a rise of anger welling up from deep within. "Maybe not in_ **_this_ ** _loop, but we will-"_

_"You can try," Anti replied with a nasty grin. Cry could hear the door creak open behind him and immediately he felt a presence behind him-and it certainly wasn't friendly._

_There was_ **_no time_ ** _to get away, none. The second he felt a large, strong hand clamp down on his shoulder, he knew it was over. But he stared unflinchingly at Anti whether his face was visible or not and glared, refusing to look away, to cry out, to flail and give Anti the satisfaction of his fear._

_"But something tells me that by the time you all even realize again, you'll be too late-”_

“Hello, Cry~”

The voice snapped him out of the vision with a jolt and suddenly he realized he was staring into green eyes. Staring into green eyes and a grinning face-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand shit's about to go down. These guys just can't catch a break. But anyway, thanks so much for the support and theorizing; really helps with pacing and writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	35. Chapter 34

“ _Oh! Shit-!_ ” Cry exclaimed, jerking away, out from between the armoire and the entity.

He scrambled a few paces away, hesitating as he tried to predict just what exactly the entity was about to try and pull-except Anti didn't move, instead eyeing him with that wide, predatory grin on his face, silent but likely deciding what exactly to do with him. Figuring he should probably take whatever opportunity provided to put distance between the two of them, he quickly backed up again. As he did, he shined the flashlight directly at the entity-conflicted feelings of surprise and lackthereof that no actual shadow was cast behind Anti, almost as if the light passed right through him.

Anti’s eyes flickered to the floor for a brief moment to catch the glint of the clock remains on the floor before pulling them back up towards Cry. “I see you’ve been diving into locked memories again.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t exactly intentional,” Cry pointed out. “You really should place your clocks a little bit better if they’re gonna be in high places; they fall off really easily.” Okay, this was bad. _This was really bad._ But he was almost positive he wasn't going into this completely blind. After all, Ethan mentioned the entity had tried stabbing him, told them what worked against it and what didn't work-and then Jack mentioned that this guy tried _killing_ him and Ethan in every loop and actually went out of his way to do so. For some reason.

Okay, so the good news is that he knew what to expect. Knives and...weird-ass ghostiness, he supposed. The bad news is that unlike Ethan, he didn't exactly have a spell to repel this being.

Cry took another step back, free hand slowly going for his knife as the grip on his flashlight meanwhile tightened. Keep this guy talking. Just keep him talking and distracted and he could maybe, _hopefully_ find a way out of this.

“There wasn’t a thirteenth person, was there?” Cry questioned.

“I’m not entirely sure what you mean by that,” Anti countered, unable to keep the smirk off his face. _Asshole. Yes he did._

“The new person, the one that was calling for help. _The very reason we ended up down here in this basement._ That was you, wasn’t it?”

Anti tilted his head at an unnatural angle. “Well...I thought you already knew that. Once I shut the door on you all...locked it-”

“Yeah, okay, we got that.” Cry paused, pursing his lips as it clicked. “Your voice. _That’s how you did it_ , that double voice. You can narrow it down to just Jack’s but also-”

“Also the other one you hear,” Anti finished, grinning a wide, toothy grin.

Cry narrowed his eyes a bit at this. “And whose voice is that?” He paused. “Yours? Or-”

"Ah ah, Cry. You already got to ask your question. Now it’s my turn,” Anti cut off. “I wonder, Cry... I wonder, I wonder, I wonder~" He took another step closer, to which Cry took another step back. If they had to do this whole dance around the room, so be it. He wasn't about to give Anti the advantage of closeness if he could manage, at least for as long as he could possibly manage. "That memory from the clock. What was it that you saw?"

Cry glared back in silence, refusing to answer, but Anti took another step closer. The former took another step back. Finally, he decided to speak. He wanted to keep his answer vague if forced to supply one at all, didn’t want him to use any sort of knowledge against them. He’d _seen_ what happened to Jack, after all, how much this psychopath fucked up his mind. But he needed to keep this guy talking, just keep him distracted until he figured out a way out of this freaking mess.

"I saw a memory from down here in the basement," Cry replied honestly. "From the cramped room-"

"Ah, that room," Anti remarked. The grin split his features again as he suddenly said, "I think I know which memory you mean." He tilted his head again in genuine curiosity, movements almost eerily catlike in a way. "I'm curious...just how much of it did you see?" he questioned. When Cry didn't answer, he decided to continue. "Did you see the part where Mark and Tyler and Ken just decided to up and abandon you? To save their own skins?" As Cry's brows furrowed and didn’t respond, Anti’s grin widened. "Did you get to the part where my dear pet _ripped your head from your shoulders?_ " He giggled, a sound that was laced with sadistic malice. "That part's my _favorite_ -"

"Yeah...you can claim I was abandoned," Cry countered evenly, voice cool as he shook his head. "I've seen how you operate. I've seen what you've been doing to Jack. I really don't believe you, you know."

Anti smirked. "Ah well. I suppose it was worth a shot, at least," he replied with a small shrug. "It's fun _trying_ , after all-"

"What the hell do you want with all of us, Anti?"

Anti seemed almost taken aback by this, as if not expecting an interrogation. Briefly Cry had to wonder how just how little people had actually questioned him in past loops. Regardless, the other’s surprise was almost empowering, encouraging Cry to continue. Maybe he could do more than just keep this guy occupied. Maybe he could actually get him to slip and _find out something new._

"What do you want with us...with _Jack?_ Hell-what do you want with the Patricks?"

Anti eyed him for a stretch, finally silent. But then he seemed to recover as if it'd never even happened, grinning widely again.

“Hm…” Anti seemed to consider something for a moment before grinning. “No.”

Cry frowned. “What?”

“You already had all the answers once,” Anti taunted. “If you don’t remember them, you won’t be getting them from me.”

"Yeah. Right," Cry shot back. "You just want us running in circles until...whatever you're waiting to happen happens."

Anti’s grin seemed to widen even more. “Or maybe it’s happened already,” he replied enigmatically, the venom of delighted malice dripping from his tone.

Cry narrowed his eyes at the entity, but decided pressing further really wasn’t going to get him anywhere. So instead he switched over to a different track. "Why do you keep killing me and Ethan?" he demanded. " _In every loop_ you keep trying to kill us, apparently, and-"

"Ah, but I already explained this to Ethan," Anti replied. “He should’ve respected Jack’s wishes.”

“What wishes-?” Cry began, but then shook his head, already knowing that was probably yet another question that Anti wasn’t gonna answer. “Fine then. Why keep going after me? I mean- _yeah_ , we figured it was because I’ve used the book before. But why does that even matter? Who cares who uses it-”

“ _I_ care who uses it,” Anti suddenly hissed, eyes narrowing as he now took a few steps closer to Cry, which was matched with a few more steps back. “ _Jack_ was the one who made the deal. _Jack_ is the owner of the book now.”

Oh.

Shit.

That line of questioning just made the guy _pissed._

Maybe it wasn’t exactly the best thing to be asking a guy he wanted to keep distracted after all.

“ _And I will not have interference from the likes of you-”_

Cry's eyes went wide as he caught the glint of the knife's metal in the light of the flashlight beam and staggered back as Anti suddenly lunged forward, struggling to maintain his balance by reaching out with his free hand and grabbing the edge of the table. _Yep._ Fuck this room, fuck this room, fuck this room-

He suddenly turned on the ball of his foot, darting forward and around the rest of the table to get to the door. Anti's movements were faster than he figured they'd be, or maybe it was the fact that he hadn't quite expected the entity (in spite of what he already knew) to _phase through the damn table._ As he paused for a fraction of a second to unlock the door, he suddenly felt a weight slam into his back and pin him to the door, hand still on the doorknob.

"You really thought you'd escape this loop with your life?" Anti whispered, causing the masked man to stiffen upon realizing the voice was _much_ closer to his ear than he was really comfortable with.

As if anything about this whole situation could even be called comfortable whatsoever.

"No, no, no, no. That's a foolish hope I think it's about time you abandon."

A sharp sensation suddenly pierced through his back, drawing a scream from the man as the knife plunged in deep.

"If nothing else, I will _make sure_ you and Ethan never leave a loop alive. I'll make sure you _pay_ for your interference.”

Cry immediately began to struggle and flail, or at least he did to the best of his ability. No, _no_ he was not going out like this. He couldn't go out like this, not after...not after everything, not after promising they'd all make it out of here this time-

Remembering that the others managed to get in a shot on the other's knee, his foot kicked back-not _well_ , granted, considering the awkward angle-but it kicked back and after several attempts it actually made contact with something solid. The entity hissed and pulled back, pulling the knife only halfway out and wiggling it somewhat into an angle, only aggravating it further and drawing out a pained cry. Regardless, the masked man wasted no time, immediately whipping around to swing the flashlight at Anti. A direct hit to the head, or at least it would be if the damned thing didn't phase right through it-and unfortunately it was something the entity was already anticipating. Not getting even so much as a _flinch_ , he took a step forward, swiping the knife at the entity's hands and feeling the tip of the blade knick flesh-

And that was when the flashlight gave out and plunged them both back into darkness.

Cry whipped back around, using the distraction to grasp the doorknob and twist it, practically throwing the door open as adrenaline pumped through his veins and helped dull the pain. He rocketed through the door at an angle, through the next door that would lead even deeper into the basement and into the corridor, not even bothering to listen if there were any footsteps behind him. He was running blind, hoping and praying he was navigating all of this well enough that he wouldn’t end up outright slamming into a wall-or even worse, into Steve. And on top of that, all the while absolutely hoping that Anti didn’t somehow have night vision-

Given all he’d seen by far, he honestly wouldn’t put it past him.

He kept his hand along the wall as long as he could, whenever and wherever he could, dragging his fingertips along the surface in the best method of navigating he figured he could manage. Through the corridor, left turn, down another corridor and to the room with the sofas. Yanking the door open, he slipped inside and closed it as quickly and quietly behind him before locking it and fumbling for a moment with unsteady hands to get the batteries in the flashlight changed out. He couldn’t see a damn thing in here, and honestly it wouldn’t surprise him at all if Steve was in here waiting, but _he needed some light, dammit._

To his relief he heard no sound, and his slowly-adjusting eyes picked up no movement, no shifting shadows in the darkness. With a tiny click he managed to pop the changed batteries into the flashlight and shut the little compartment, watching with relief as the light flickered back on. “Thank god…” he whispered under his breath, shining it around. As suspected, he saw no one, no dark shadows cast against the wall, no alienesque figures staring him down. And to even greater relief, _no footsteps of any kind_ heard on the other side of the door. Just to be on the safe side though, he moved away and closer to the center of the room.

Now the pain was all beginning to ebb back, sending sharp reverberations throughout his back and shoulder and arm from the point of entry with every breath, with every heartbeat. Almost immediately he felt a slight wave of dizziness and nausea at the pain and as he attempted to reach back and pull the knife out, he realized he really couldn’t reach it, it was at an angle his fingertips could do no more than brush if even that no matter how hard he tried. But maybe this was just as well? Maybe it was just as well because wouldn’t removing it just create an open wound that he’d lose blood through faster?

Eh, he didn’t know. He wasn’t a doctor, but that _sounded_ about right, at least.

“O...kay, now what do I… Right…” he whispered to himself as he shined the flashlight around in an attempt to remember what he needed to do and letting it fall upon the locked door on the other side of the room. “Right, right, ri...shit, ‘kay...no…’kay…”

He was sort of babbling to himself now as he tried to focus on something, _anything_ but the pain and stay focused, blinking hard a few times as he made his way over to the door. He needed to _shut up._ He really needed to stop talking because every word drawn from his mouth only succeeded in jabbing more pain through his lungs, through his back.

There were no illusions. He knew he was kinda in fucked condition. He needed to find the others _and quick_ or else he was going to be dealing with some worse issues than just serious pain here. With the others he could get all healed up and...and then they could all get out of here and…

When he reached the locked door, he searched his pocket for a moment to withdraw the newfound key and jammed it into the lock, hoping, _praying_ that it was gonna work-to his relief, he found that it did. He nearly threw open the door as he stumbled through, shining the flashlight around to take in yet another empty room. In front of him there wasn’t much space, but to his right it stretched on a little bit before it turned a corner (at least from what he could tell at the moment), practically more of a hallway than an actual room. Moving to head to the corner and turn right, he saw another door at the end, practically letting out a soft groan of frustration at the sight.

Of course. He shouldn’t be surprised. Why _would_ he be surprised, it was just like every other area in this godforsaken house.

Still, he’d better not need a key for the next door or else he knew he was probably truly fucked. He really wasn’t sure he had it in him to actually search for another key, especially in a room that seemed totally empty.

Upon reaching the door he let out a whine of frustration and cringed when the knob refused to turn, turning himself back to face the rest of the room as his eyes and light swept the area.

He couldn’t freaking believe this right now. _Where else down here was there to look?_ Unless the key was somewhere beyond his actual reach? In which case…

“Dammit,” he whispered. “Maybe...maybe I should just go back the way I…”

No. No, Anti was more likely to be in that direction. Or Steve. Neither were good choices. He doubted he could run very well at this point and if he had to, he could probably just as well consider himself a deadman. He needed to forge on ahead but _where the hell was the damn key?_

Okay. Maybe...puzzles. Jack mentioned something about hiding some of the keys behind puzzles, right? Maybe-maybe there was one somewhere around here, hiding the very key he needed.

Or maybe his brain was just getting loopy as all hell, desperate and trying to grasp at straws while a more logical part of him was trying to convince him to _just go back the damn way he came._

He carefully walked along through the room again, shining the flashlight around slowly this time. Walls looked normal, floor looked normal-could it be up in the light on the ceiling? Jack _did_ mention something about the clock being up there in another room, so maybe-

But _shit, man_ , if it was, then how the hell was he supposed to actually get it? He certainly wasn’t about to sacrifice his flashlight to bring the light down. There was the alarm clock in his hoodie pocket, but he doubted it’d be quite enough to actually work-not to mention he didn’t want to risk breaking it and being thrown back into another memory. Anti had already used that to his advantage and got the jump on him once. If it happened again, he would very likely end up dead.

He thought for a long moment, finally looking around and heading back to the sofa room. There wasn’t a whole lot in this room that could be considered substantial yet throwable, but maybe if he just got one of the cushions. Grabbing one off the nearest sofa, he made his way back over to the light he spied in the empty room and paused for a moment to try and position the flashlight to where it was balancing precariously to point upwards.

“O...kay, let’s do this,” he whispered, hauling the cushion up as best he could and chucking it.

It hardly went as high as he needed it to, his movements limited by the freaking _knife_ in his back. As the cushion hit the ground in front of him, he stared for a moment before looking back up and staring. “ _Then how the hell do I…?”_

His eyes dropped back down to the cushion, continuing to stare before twisting back around to look towards the door to the sofa room. After a long moment he started to let out a sigh, stopped at the pain that came with it, then shook his head and made his way back to the room.

Height. Maybe height was just something he needed to add on to get it to work. In all seriousness though, he wondered if this actually was a thing (and with all the effort he was putting into it, it’d _better_ be), then how the hell did Jack (or Anti, because who the hell really knew at this point?) actually get it into the lamp? Just...stand there for however long it took to throw it in?

As he made it back into the sofa room, his eyes lingered on the coffee table for a moment in consideration. That seemed to be the most logical thing to grab for added height, but considering how big it was, he doubted he’d be able to actually fit it through the door-at least not without more effort than he figured he could probably spare. So after a moment he grabbed a couple other cushions, gathering them up and heading back into the empty room, then making an extra trip back and forth to grab a third cushion.

As he stacked two on top of each other and set the third one down next to them like a stair, he eyed them for a moment with uncertainty. Even in his growing haze and desperation, he knew this had ‘bad idea’ written all over it. One fall (and it probably _would_ fall, very easily he imagined) and he could end up hurting himself even worse. Hell, if he were to land on his back-

Ugh, he was really gonna try not to think about that.

Grabbing the fourth cushion and carefully stepping up onto the first, then the two stacked ones, he took a moment to make sure he was balanced as best as he could manage before hurling the one in his hand back up towards the light.

And once again it fell short.

He couldn’t help the sound of frustration that escaped his throat as he stepped off the cushions (with an unsteady wobble-this _really_ wasn’t safe even in the best of health) and down onto the floorboards that produced a soft creak in response to his sudden weight. With his voice came a tickle in his throat and suddenly his lungs spasmed, his hand flying up to shove up his mask and go over his his mouth as he coughed harshly into it. It was far too loud and he tried to stop it as fast as he could-but the pain that came with it was overwhelming. When he finally pulled his hand away, he felt a chill run up his spine and tried to shove down the rising panic as he noticed the warm, dark liquid that had pooled in it, tasted the coppery substance in his mouth and briefly he wondered if this was similar to how Jack must’ve felt in the library.

He was gonna die here.

He was gonna die here _again_ if he didn’t figure out how to press on forward. Or if he didn’t backtrack. Or...or _something_ -

A wave of hopelessness and despair rolling over him, he wobbled for a moment, his legs giving out and plopping him down onto the stack of couch cushions.

He tried to lean forward but the motion stopped him-just about _any_ motion at this point stopped him, to be honest, but damned if he wasn’t gonna try. In response to the pain he slid himself forward to plop onto the floor, yanking his hood back and pulling his mask off to shove into his hoodie pocket as well. If he was starting to struggle with breathing and cough up blood, he imagined a mask over his face was really the _last_ thing he needed-how gross would it be to cough it all up inside the mask and have to deal with that?

He desperately tried to shove away the memory of the mask he’d found in the hidden room, the one fractured and breaking, the one covered in blood on both sides-

His eyes flickered slowly up towards the light, staring grudgingly for several long moments as he felt a little tinge of anger and annoyance at it all. This was going to be the death of him. _Seriously_ , of all the ways he expected to go out, he never actually expected it would be one time of many in the middle of some locked horror basement in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country with a knife in his back. Killed by _some freaking ghost thing that looked like one of his friends, go freaking figure._

His eyes slid shut for a moment as he rocked back and forth a little, trying desperately not to focus on that. Clear his mind, just clear his mind and think of something else. Think of another way, think on just _how the hell he was actually going to get out of this situation._ But nothing was really coming to mind, nothing except to maybe just stick with the original plan and somehow, _somehow_ manage to get the damned cushion up there to knock the light off the ceiling and-

His arm stretched forward-all movements tentative-as his fingers curled around the edge of the cushion again. Pulling it back towards him, his muscles tensed in preparation to try throwing again as he started to move back to his feet-

But as he lifted it, he suddenly he paused and dropped back down onto the cushion to stare at the one in his hand. His fingers slowly reached out to lightly trace the line he suddenly realized was on the bottom of the cushion and then…

Oh, of course.

_Of course, goddammit, he was really bad at this, wasn’t he?_

With one hand he lifted his own knife, plunging it down into the cushion and dragging it down along the stitched-up line. Once it was sufficiently large enough, he slipped his own hand inside, feeling around for a few long moments until his fingertips finally touched metal and he let out a sigh of relief mixed with frustration and annoyance. Goddammit, he almost didn’t find that at all. He was going to have a few words with Jack. Or Anti. Or whoever the hell hid that particular key.

Lifting his head, he stared for a few long moments at the locked door before he closed his eyes and shook his head slightly, realizing he was beginning to space. Nonono, don’t do that, don’t…

They’d still have to find the clock to this room, of course, if there even was one. No doubt _that_ would actually be in the light. But they’d worry about that later, at the moment he _had_ to find his friends, _had_ to regroup. It was a matter of survival at this point, freaking life and death. Letting the cushion drop from his fingers, he picked up the flashlight, then slowly and painfully moved back to his feet and took careful but still stumbling, staggering steps to the door. This had to be the right key. This _better_ be the right key. Otherwise he was in so much freaking trouble-

He jammed the key into the lock and gave it a twist, relieved when he heard the reassuring click issue from it. Withdrawing the key and shoving it back into his pocket, he gave the knob a twist this time and pulled the door open, pausing for a moment and looking on ahead to wince slightly at the long narrow stretch of darkness before him. The beam only went so far before it was eaten up by the void of shadows beyond, but at least he wasn’t really hearing anything in front of him...right?

Still, this didn’t look good. This looked _substantially unsafe._ Another one of these freaking narrow corridors-if he ran into Anti or Steve in one of these things, he’d probably end up dead-

But at this point, that was probably about the same chance he’d have at survival if he ran into either of those two anywhere or chose not to press forward at all.

Drawing in a careful breath to steel his nerves, he muttered, “...’kay. Let’s go do this.”

He moved to head down the narrow corridor, straining his ears for any sound and keeping the flashlight pointed on ahead. It was getting heavier and heavier in his hand with each step, his feet were starting to drag a little, he suddenly found himself nudging the wall on more than one occasion.

Not good. This was _not_ good, and in all honesty he was more than a little surprised that he’d even managed to go on this long. It was getting harder to breathe...that freaking tickle in his throat would rise up again in intervals, and when it wasn’t, there was a sort of oppressive, heavy feeling in his throat, as if drowning from a thick, heavy fluid. Three guesses as to what that was.

“C’mon, just...just a little bit more. Just a little bit further, c’mon,” he whispered to himself on his exhales.

The narrow corridor was long, _way_ longer than he anticipated it to be. By the point he rounded his second corner he was beginning to wonder if it would ever end but as he flashed the light up ahead, he could see yet another door.

Thank god. Maybe? Maybe. He certainly hoped. Although it would probably be just his luck that the _wrong_ thing would be waiting for him on the other side, he certainly hoped it’d be clear and lead the way back to his friends.

As he finally hit the end of the corridor, his hand reached out to grasp the doorknob, face falling entirely when his attempts to twist it proved futile.

“No…” he whispered, a note of desperation entering his voice. “Nonononono-oh, _c’mon,_ don’t do this to me _please-”_

The pleading brought another tickle to his throat and sent him into another coughing fit. This one didn’t let up. This one was violent, relentless, and each one tensed the muscle around the blade of the knife, seemed to cut him wider and more raggedly and dig it into him even more. The flashlight slipped from his hand, plunging him back into darkness as the clatter against the floor was barely heard over his own noise. With a swell of panic he realized he was starting to run out of air, he couldn’t breathe, he-

And suddenly he collapsed, just in time to hear a click from the door and feel the soft breeze and rush of slightly-fresher air as it swung open. And it was at that point he sank into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, yeah, okay. So this chapter is a _bit_ longer than I'd normally make them. But I couldn't really find too good of a cut-off point in this section, so ah well. But thanks so much for all the support, it helps so much with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	36. Chapter 35

When he awoke, he was lying on the cold floor with nothing left of his injury but the uncomfortably warm, damp feeling of his shirt plastered to his back in about the spot where he was stabbed. Immediately Felix was looming above him with a worried expression and Ken soon behind and Cry had to blink a few times to try and force his vision to focus. Even though his ears were registering sound, it took several long moments to even comprehend Felix’s words, anybody else’s words, and for a while he just stared dumbly up at them, body otherwise still.

It took a moment for him to even realize that his mask was gone, his face exposed to the open air. Whatever blood had dribbled down his chin after coughing it up had been wiped away as best as possible, and even though he was feeling more than just a little self-conscious without his mask now, the attempted cleanup just one of the little things in their care that he greatly appreciated. By now things were slowly coming into focus though, and Felix’s actual words were beginning to register.

“...d’ve changed your shirt but we didn’t exactly have one on-hand…”

“You okay, buddy?” Ken meanwhile asked. “Everything intact?” He held up one hand. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Cry blinked a few times before replying, “Three.” Pause. “Five.” Pause, then a light chuckle as the fingers shifted to one. “...Uh huh. Yeah, okay.” He slowly sat up, still feeling a little dizzy. Considering all the blood he figured had soaked into his clothes and dripped into the floor, he supposed there was really only so much that would’ve been able to return back into the wound before it sealed up.

“Geez, you’re pale,” Felix commented, eyeing him in the light of the flashlight. “How do you feel?”

“Dizzy,” Cry admitted, running a hand down his face only for it to stop halfway for a moment before letting it drop back down entirely. “Tired. But  _ alive _ . Thanks guys, seriously. I really thought I was a goner back there.” Looking around, he asked, “Where’s Jack?”

“I’m here,” Jack called over from several feet away. “I’m fine, I’m just...fiddlin’ with my bandage, I’ll be right over.” A pause, followed by, “I really am glad to see you’re managing okay though. We were cutting it pretty close back there.”

“Well I mean-it’s not  _ completely _ my fault,” Cry pointed out, making a slight face but his complaints more so half-hearted and more at an attempt to tease than argue if anything. “Jack, your puzzles suck.”

“Really? Which one?” Jack questioned curiously as the group could hear some shuffling and whatnot in the shadows.

“Jack, you gonna need some help retying that bandage?” Felix called over. “Maybe some light, at least?”

“Uh-whichever, but I think I think I got it, one moment,” Jack replied. “I know that beam’s not very big and my eyes have adjusted anyway, so just-hang on-”

As Cry watched a figure move in the darkness, but then shook his head slightly. “The freakin’ couch-light puzzle thing.”

“Light puzzle?” Jack repeated, pausing with a slight frown. “...I don’t remember a light puzzle-”

“Okay, okay, well maybe not a light puzzle exactly, I just kinda thought-” Cry shook his head. “The sofa cushion, the uh...the key sewn into the sofa cushion. From that room with the three sofas and the coffee table?”

A pause, then, “...Oh! That one-” Jack made a slight face. “You really thought I hid a key up in one of the lights? How the hell would I even get it up there?”

“I don’t know-” Cry shook his head again, then scooted a bit to face more towards him. “What’s wrong with your bandage?”

“Ah-not much, I just-” Jack’s voice dropped off for a moment with occupied movements, his attention half-absorbed by the task at hand. “Not long after we found you the cuts in my stomach started acting up. I’d just finished checking if they were okay right before you woke up.”

Cry blinked, staring. “Well?” he asked. “ _ Are _ you okay?”

“Yeah, looks like I just ripped some of them back open during the chaos. A couple of them were back to bleeding a little bit,” Jack replied dismissively.

“The knife in your back,” Ken asked worriedly, eyeing Cry. “Anti?”

“Who else?” Cry grumbled, memory returning to the entity from earlier, eyes straying over to look at the knife laying on the floor nearby. The blade was covered in dried blood, having been extracted from his back. “But hey, at least it was  _ just _ Anti. When monsters start wielding knives like people, then we’re  _ really _ in trouble.”

“Ugh, you’re not kidding,” Felix remarked, running a hand back through his hair.

At this point, Cry looked around to try and take in their surroundings as best possible. In the process he reached over to take the flashlight and shine it off to his right, watching as it outlined the bars that cast shadows on the far wall. “We’re in one of the cells…” he murmured softly, instantly remembering the first time he saw this place, when all of them but Jack ended up cornered in here. When they were let out by Anti-because god, now he knew for sure-and the last thing he heard from the doppelganger’s lips was a taunt. When one of the monsters was unleashed upon them-he was almost positive of this now-and they were sitting ducks.

“Hey, Jack,” Cry asked.

“Hm?” Jack asked absently from the near-shadows.

“There was a point where we all got locked in a cell, yeah? And Anti cornered us with his monsters after he let us out or something?”

“Wait a minute, why were we in  _ here? _ ” Ken asked. “Safety?”

A pause from the shadows, followed by a reluctant, “Sorta.” Another pause, then a guilty, “That was loop thirty-seven. I wanted to make sure ye all would be safe once I reached a certain point. I couldn’t afford to have any fuck-ups. So I sort of...lured ye all in. Locked the door on ye so I could find the main key on my own-”

“Goddammit, Jack,” Felix whispered under his breath as he shook his head. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”

“Well how did that turn out?” Cry asked.

“Well, I mean-here we are, aren’t we?” Jack gestured around. “In another loop.” But then he sighed. “It backfired. It was a fuckin’ bloodbath. Four ripped to pieces in here alone, another dead out in the hall and fuck-all if I know what happened to the other four-” He paused, then added, “Trust me, there’s some things yer lucky ye don’t remember.”

Cry frowned, thinking back to the memory of being in the cell with Anti-now he was  _ certain _ it was Anti anyway-taunting him. Or Jack that was being taunted? Yeah, now that he was sure that he and Jack were sharing memories in some circumstances, more than likely Jack. They were both in a room together when he got the memory, after all, and that was how it all seemed to work. But if that  _ was _ the case-

“Okay. And I have one other memory of you in a cell with Anti on the other side. Did Anti somehow put you in there? Why were you in-”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Jack immediately interrupted, catching him off guard.

Ken frowned. “Jack, if there’s maybe any clues-”

“There isn’t. It was just a shitty loop.” And with that Jack went resolutely silent, tugging his shirt back on before walking back over to them. Realizing the others were staring questioningly now, he sighed. “Look, it...it doesn’t matter. At all. That particular loop was just pure shite and nothing really happened during it-”

“Jack-” Cry began.

“There’s  _ nothing to say _ so there’s no real point in talking about it.” Jack shrugged at this. “End of story.” Adamant, he shook his head. “All that’s going to come of it is some extra negativity that we really don’t need right now.” Immediately changing the subject, he turned to Cry. “Cry, you ran into Anti? Did he do anything other than stab you? Say anything, maybe?”

“Well he-well he did the weird ghosty thing that Ethan was talking about,” Cry replied. “With occasional points of solidity. If that’s normal at all?”

Jack shook his head, solemn. “Originally no,” he replied. “He didn’t do that in the beginning. He’s doing it a lot more than he used to now though.”

“What changed?” Ken wondered, frowning.

Jack shrugged helplessly. “I really wish I knew. At least then we’d know how to stop it, maybe,” he confessed.

“We can discuss this once back with the group,” Felix noted, looking towards the ceiling with a worried look. “I’m kinda worried they’re gonna start sending people out to look for us. Considering the power’s been cut and how long we’ve been down here-”

“Wait, how long  _ have _ we been down here?” Cry asked, frowning worriedly.

Felix shrugged, shifting a little. “You’ve been out for at least half an hour. Really, I’d say we’ve met that two-hour mark at this point. It’s really hard to tell what with the weird-ass time and...yeah.” He shrugged. “Just wish we could’ve destroyed more of the clocks down here.”

“If we can make it out through the tunnel, it hopefully won’t even matter soon enough anyway,” Ken pointed out hopefully. “Let’s just regroup and figure out what to do with there.”

“Agreed,” Jack seconded with a nod. “I’m really not a huge fan of the basement.”

“This as bad as it gets?” Felix asked as he pulled himself to his feet.

Jack bit his lip, then shook his head. “No,” he replied honestly. “No. Annex down beneath us is pretty bad too. And then the fifth floor-” His head tilted upwards with a worried and unnerved frown weighing on his features. “Fifth floor is even worse. In fact...in fact there really isn’t anything in this house you’re gonna find as bad as what you’ll find up there.”

Cry frowned. “But Jack,” he pointed out. “There’s only four stories. The stairs end on the fourth floor.”

Jack shook his head as he made his way over to the cell door, pulling out a key to unlock it. “Remember the little room on the fourth floor? The one with the hidden room and the door that requires an entrance code? That goes up to the fifth floor.”

“And what’s so bad about the fifth floor?” Felix asked warily, eyeing Jack with a frown.

“ _ That’s where the monsters are kept.” _

 

* * *

 

“I really hope they all get back here soon,” Stephanie mumbled worriedly from her spot at the table, head in her hands and surrounded by lit candles and books. Two hours had passed and Mark, Bryan, Tyler and Matthew had left not too long ago in search of the others. They’d left Stephanie, Matthias, J-Fred and Ethan up in the safe room for safekeeping and to continue working on research. Whatever that involved, at least-Ethan wasn’t entirely sure  _ what _ Stephanie was actually looking for at this point, just that what she did explain seemed kinda vague and not really all that related to figuring out a way out or anything related to his newfound abilities or anything really concerning Jack or any of the other twenty million questions they seemed to have. So sitting on the bed, he let out a soft sigh, doing his best to contain his worry.

“I’m sure they’re gonna be fine,” he replied, though he was still undeniably a bit sore that once again they refused to let him go down with the others and help.  _ Yeah _ , maybe he did have a target on his back.  _ Yeah _ , maybe they didn’t entirely understand his magic at the moment, or the book he’d found, but all the same-

All the same, he felt he could help more than they were allowing. He  _ wanted _ to help more than they were allowing. It was frustrating, and perhaps even more frustrating being the undeniable understanding that they were probably justified in their concerns.

“Yeah, they’ll be back sooner than you know it. You’ll see,” Matthias assured, sitting down across the table from her as his eyes swept over the books scattered about. “So now, you were saying what exactly about the books…?”

“Yeah! Just-well I mean, it’s kind of just a theory, but…”

Ethan listened for a bit but didn’t really say anything, letting his eyes slide shut as his breathing deepened, still focusing on trying not to worry, still trying to come up with a decent game plan next time he was actually out there on the field. He’d been practicing but it’d been a bit draining-magic seemed to come at a price regardless of whose or what it is and the price seemed to be energy, as far as he seemed to be aware. No wonder Jack seemed so tired all the time. As his mind wandered, he could feel his consciousness beginning to ebb away, pulling him under-

_ And suddenly he could hear shouting. Not shouting coming from him, coming from all around him from the various others, coming from Mark especially. He hesitated, pulling his attention from trying to line up a spell and focus it into a narrow blast as best he could while Philip-the scythe-clawed, quick monster with the pitched whine-was still so close to the others. As he did, he shifted a few steps to his right to get a look  _ **_around_ ** _ Philip- _

_ Just in time to see the body impaled by those wicked claws, straight through the chest and now collapsing as the claws withdrew. The victim’s eyes were wide, their face drained of color. Mark stood behind the collapsing body, eyes wide and body frozen. And now suddenly he was freaking, Felix was shouting to him, the body and the unconscious were being moved. Oh  _ **_thank god_ ** _ , the unconscious were being moved. Now he could- _

_ But as he returned focus to powering up a spell, one of Bryan’s arrows flew past and buried into the creature’s shoulder, causing it to whip around to face them. _

_ “Not done with my spell yet-!” he hissed to Bryan, who winced. _

_ “We’ll try and keep it occupied,” he replied apologetically. “Keep doing what you’re doing in the meantime.” _

_ Ethan let out a small sigh as the light surged back into his hands, feeling arcane power return with it. He tried to block out all that was going on around him-the shouts, the gunshots, the- _

_ Suddenly a blur and a shout and oh god now he was tumbling, now there was a searing pain in his leg, in his torso, now there was blood staining his pants- _

_ “Ethan? Ethan, are you alright?” Matthias exclaimed, frowning with worry. _

_ “I-I’m fine-” Ethan began as he sat up with a wince. “I think. Ow.” _

_ “Ethan, you’re bleeding,” Tyler pointed out as he hurried over, moving to help Ethan up as best as possible. _

_ “I told you, I’m fi-” But as Ethan looked down at himself, he could see very well that he wasn’t exactly the prime definition of ‘fine’. Leg bloody, side bloody, seemed the others weren’t exactly the most skilled at tanking-at least not in real life. Casting a look at the monster though, it seemed the arrows and bullets had taken at least something of a toll on it, several cuts left and gashes left on its body from the efforts of Cry, Matthias, Tyler and Ken. _

_ “Go hurry up and join the others,” Tyler instructed. “We’ll join you guys as soon as we’re done out here.” _

_ “Besides, the injured people can probably use some defense from within the room they’re in, just in case worst does come to worst,” Ken pointed out. “Tyler’s right, hurry up and go.” _

_ Ethan looked ready to argue, but one look at the monster gearing up to charge again told him that now really wasn’t the right time. So instead he gave a reluctant but reassuring nod and hurried for the door, pausing to turn back to the rest of them. “Nobody better die out here,” he called out to them. “Not when we finally have the key. If you do…” _

_ Tyler offered him a brief smirk before waving him off. “Yeah, yeah, go. Go!” _

_ Ethan nodded, giving the bedroom door a quick knock. It was one of the bedrooms in the back of the house on the second floor, the one on the other side of the house to their most recent safe room. Felix didn’t waste any time pulling open the door, to which Ethan slipped in and hobbled over. _

_ As he saw the grim state of affairs within, he assured, “We’re winning. I think we’re winning.” Whether they  _ **_actually_ ** _ were or not, he felt they could use some form of decent news. _

_ Immediately he made a beeline for the injured. “How’s Cry?” Cry was lying nearby, unconscious, got knocked unconscious by Philip towards the start of the battle when they were all caught by surprise. He was breathing though, unconsciousness and a headache was likely going to be his only issue, if not perhaps a concussion. No, the real concern was the other lying in the room, the one Mark had brought in. _

_ “How’s-” _

_ And there was blood. _

_ Oh god there was so much blood. _

_ “Holy shit, Jack-” _

And suddenly he was back in the safe room again, hearing something being called over to him. “Huh...wha…?” he mumbled blearily, looking around. But now he was trying to hang on to the memories of his dream. Now he was  _ desperately _ trying to hold on, because just like the last dream he had like this, it felt intense, it felt  _ real _ . He could still smell the blood, the shouts were still ringing in his ears, the phantom pain still stung at his leg and his side. All at once the barrier between reality and dream were blurred and he  _ had _ to question it,  _ had _ to wonder if it was actually something else entirely.

Something other than a dream.

“I said-” J-Fred started, to which Ethan held up a hand to cut him off.

“No-no-hold on. Shut up for just a minute,” Ethan interrupted.

J-Fred frowned, exchanging a look with his brother before looking back over at the blunette. Stephanie shifted a bit, eyeing Ethan. “Ethan?” she began.

“I had a dream,” Ethan whispered, suddenly feeling very awake as his eyes were now wide but didn’t dare to look towards them, didn’t dare to look away from the point they were staring at for fear it was going to somehow slip away. “I had a dream-” His voice shifting to realization, he added, “ _ I don’t think it was just a dream.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little shorter than I intended. This week's been super busy-I've got a big convention going on for the next four days or so (starting today), so just a heads up, the next chapter _might_ be a day late. I'll try not to let that happen but fair warning. Also! Looks like some things are finally starting to come together. But thanks so much for the support so far; really helps with writing and posting. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	37. Chapter 36

“The others are gonna kill us,” Bryan whispered as they headed up the stairs.

“Maybe, but they’ve been gone for longer than the time we gave them,” Mark muttered, his cell phone with the flashlight on in one hand and a baseball bat in the other with a frown on his face. Finding the fusebox and getting the power back on would be an infinitely better solution to the darkness though. “We need to find them. And if we could manage to find a fusebox somewhere, yeah, that would be pretty preferable too.”

“The others are first priority though,” Tyler murmured.

“Yeah, no, they definitely are,” Matthew muttered, clutching the iron pipe they’d found on one of the beds. The group headed up the stairs-once, twice, then turned into the room on the left side. So far they heard no footsteps, although they’d checked each room as quickly and cautiously as they could.

As the group entered and shined their lights around the room, they could see none of their friends-they also couldn’t see a fusebox anywhere.

Matthew’s eyes lingered on the bookshelf nearby, heading over to pick up a book and examine it before heading back over to the group. “Hey, mind if we bring this along?” he asked.

“Uh-” Bryan shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.” As he shrugged off his backpack partway to unzip it, he asked, “Why exactly?”

“I-it’s just a theory,” Matthew replied with a small grin as he shoved the book into the backpack. “I’ll explain later.”

Bryan shouldered the backpack once it was zipped back up and looked around. “Guess we can put clocks and keys in here too if we manage to find them.”

“Good idea,” Tyler agreed, keeping an eye out for any such things. “Our friends are our first priority though.”

“Yeah,” Mark agreed, moving to head out in front.

“You know, I’m starting to wonder if we should’ve brought Ethan along. I’ll bet that book has a light spell of some kind to it,” Bryan confessed, only half-serious. “Something to kick the power back on or something. It’s possible we don’t even need to find a fusebox.”

Mark snorted. “Probably. It seems to have just about everything else in it,” he replied. “Still, I kinda wanna hold off on the other book being used overall. None of us really seem to know much about it, not even Jack, so…”

“It’s better if he’s in the safe room either way,” Matthew pointed out. “If our hideout gets discovered and it comes down to a fight, he’s probably going to be the most equipped to handle it out of everyone up there.”

“Really hoping that doesn’t happen,” Mark murmured worriedly, frowning.

“Yeah, let’s just hurry up, find the others and get back there,” Bryan agreed, a frown dropping over his face at the thought.

The group headed back down, double-checking each of the rooms just to be sure before they finally hit the second floor and did a quick sweep of the area. Upon reaching the first safe room towards the front of the house, the door was only opened about halfway as Mark started inside and shined the flashlight around, but upon hearing a shift, suddenly froze before immediately backing out.

“Mark, what-?” Tyler started in a whisper, but then upon getting a look inside himself, he quickly shut up and backed out as well.

Matthew frowned, scooting around the others to get a look. The room was dark and mostly empty-except for one of the monsters standing still, facing away from them. The monster was slender and smaller than most of the ones they’d seen by far, facing...something? Something kinda square and solid-

The flashlight beam that briefly glanced over showed the creature was facing a TV, seemingly transfixed by the nonexistent image. A TV that was clearly off, couldn’t be on without power or anything, but for a split second it seemed to glitch with lines running over it like an old VHS tape and a splash of static across its surface-the reflection in the old screen seemed oddly almost smaller than the creature facing it-but as the flashlight beam moved away, it all vanished. No actual light emanated from the TV, it was difficult just making out the shape of the furniture and the creature alone, much less anything odd about what it might’ve been looking at.

Bryan reached out to push him and anyone else back a bit before quietly shutting the door again, looking back at everyone and silently pointing back to the main hall. Mark nodded, quickly moving to lead the way back towards the stairs.

“Well that was a thing,” Mark muttered. “So just a bit dangerous on this floor.”

“Seemed distracted, at least,” Bryan whispered with relief. “But yeah, okay. First floor then?”

Tyler paused, frowned a bit as he peered through the darkness. Lifting a hand, he pointed on ahead. “Hey,” he noted, drawing everyone’s attention. “Is that camera recording?”

All eyes turned to the camera sitting on the chair, noticing the little red light and the lens pointed their way. Mark nodded, making his way over. “Yeah,” he replied as he flicked off the flashlight to his cell and pocketed it before picking up the camcorder. “Yeah, actually. It is. Huh.”

He stopped the recording and fumbled with it for a moment, squinting at the buttons for a moment in the darkness. Tyler made his way over with his own phone’s flashlight, pointing it down at the camera helpfully. “Here…” he muttered.

“Thanks,” Mark replied, going to the clip of whatever was recording most recently “I don’t remember putting the camera on record like this. One of the others must’ve done so a bit earlier.”

“Probably around two hours ago,” Bryan agreed. “Or close to it, at least?”

“Yeah, before they went downstairs,” Matthew agreed. “Assuming that’s where they went, anyway.”

“Maybe they mentioned or left a video or something,” Mark agreed hopefully. He paused, looking around before glancing over at the others. “Maybe we should go find somewhere safe to watch this.”

“Agreed. Let’s head downstairs,” Tyler replied, moving to the stairs. The group headed down, turning left at the stairs and continuing onward until they reached the kitchen/lounge area (after checking the library along the way, of course). Once there, Mark shut the door behind them and locked it before fiddling with the camcorder again, bringing up the video.

The group gathered around as Mark started the clip from the beginning, bathed in the light of the video. They could see the group-Felix, Ken, Cry and Jack-pulling away from the camera and seeming to discuss for a moment before heading down the stairs, down towards the source of screeching.

“Yeah, downstairs then,” Tyler muttered, continuing to watch as the video continued to speed onwards. Most of it was monotonous, no change in what was going on whatsoever-until a figure appeared at the top of the stairs. A very  _ familiar _ figure, pausing before making his way up to the camera and leaning forward to look dead into the lense with a wide, mischievous grin.

_ “Well, well, well. What have we here~?” _

Wide eyes stared into the glitching screen now, nobody saying a word. Yet.

_ “Looking for your little friends? Felix. Ken. Cry.” _

“That’s not Jack,” Mark whispered.

“It’s not, but hell if it doesn’t look like him,” Bryan agreed.

_ “You’re  _ **_too late_ ** _. They’re  _ **_gone_ ** _.” The entity let out a distorted giggle. “Have fun escaping here without them.” _

The group watched as the entity walked off from the lens, heading back down the stairs. A few seconds of silence followed before anyone finally spoke.

“Nonononono-” Mark began, frowning and shaking his head.

“He said all their names but Jack’s.  _ Why? _ ” Matthew muttered, frowning.

“He must be trying to throw us off balance,” Tyler pointed out. “Holding out hope that we might still confuse him and Jack, maybe? I really don’t think it’s the first time.”

“If he’s doing that after this many times, it’s probably worked,” Bryan pointed out with a frown. “Although he doesn’t seem to be trying very hard, at least not this time around.”

“If it really is the case of trying to throw us all off balance, ‘not trying very hard’ is probably all he needs,” Matthew pointed out with his own realization. “He knows everyone’s tired, disoriented and on-edge. It’s not gonna take much to push people into a mob mentality at this point-or at least to a point of mistrust.”

“And I’ll bet he’s not even being honest about the others,” Tyler muttered. Looking at Mark, he suggested, “Fast-forward through the rest? Maybe they came back up or something between then and now.”

Mark nodded, hitting fast forward as the group watched once again in silence. All was rather monotonous again until suddenly the power flickered out, plunging the camera’s surroundings into darkness. “Alright, so that’s about the point where the power got cut,” Matthew noted. “Good to know. Gives us a bit of an idea as to what point we’re at, at least.”

“It’s gonna be hard noticing any other changes while we’ve got it on fast-forward though,” Bryan whispered, frowning. “Considering we can’t hear-” As a large obvious shadow suddenly passed by the camera lens, he fell silent. “...And then suddenly that happened.”

The group watched for a while longer as shadows passed by the camera once or twice more-none of them human. It was chilling seeing what exactly was roaming around outside the whole time, even worse now that it alerted the very-aware minds of just what could be lurking in the darkness and how frequently. After a bit, Tyler finally let out a held breath and looked over at the others.

“So. Seems like we’re in the right place, at least. Or right floor?”

“Yeah, the others are probably still gonna be somewhere down here,” Mark muttered, looking around.

“Assuming they’re still alive,” Bryan pointed out, looking worried. “Hoping that they are.”

“Alright. Other corridor or back rooms?” Mark wondered. “Or maybe basement? Ethan  _ did _ mention he’d ended up down there, after all-”

“Seemed like there was a lot going on towards the bathrooms,” Bryan muttered in suggestion.

“If that’s where the activity’s going on-and then basement, yeah. If I was looking to get anyone confused and disoriented…” Matthew began, although his voice was distracted. Something was still nagging at him-actually. There were a  _ lot _ of things bugging him right now, but he’d address them in a little bit. “We can kinda check the other corridor and the basement in one shot, if it’s where I’m thinking of. If none of that pans out...yeah, back rooms could be a decent bet.”

Mark nodded in agreement, turning off the camera and slipping it into Bryan’s backpack upon getting the offer before leading the group back out of the kitchen/lounge area and back through the entrance hall, into the next corridor. The group walked in silence with the occasional nervous glance and flashlight sweep behind them. They thought wandering the mansion was nerve-wracking before; now that the power was cut, they could see just how very wrong they were about that assertion.

“Okay, so yeah. Door on the right, just before rounding the corner,” Bryan confirmed as they approached the end of the corridor. As they neared the door, Mark reached out to pull the door open-

He frowned, finding the door locked.

“Anyone got a key to the basement?” he asked, glancing back at the others. As everyone else shook their heads, he let out a sigh. “Great.”

“Yeah, maybe it’s a different room then,” Tyler pointed out with a sigh. “If it’s locked for us, it was probably locked for the others, too. I can’t see them locking the door to the whole basement, at any rate.”

“Yeah,” Mark agreed, sighing as well.

“So sticking with the plan, we can check the bathrooms-then maybe the back rooms?” Matthew suggested.

“To the dojo area and beyond,” Mark agreed as the group moved to round the corner. “There’s still a bit more to that area that needs to be investigated anyway, I think.”

The group headed down the next bit of hallway, nearing the bathrooms, but a peek inside showed no occupation, no change. Well-no change aside from the vending machine in the side bathroom being shut off.

“Oh, that’s gonna make things a bit more difficult,” Bryan murmured apprehensively. “Really hoping the ammo we got for Joey was enough.”

“Back rooms then?” Tyler asked, glancing over at Mark.

Mark nodded. “Back rooms,” he agreed. The group headed back to the entrance hall again, relieved as no major attacks interrupted them, but the quiet simultaneously brought an ever-increasing tense feeling, as if something was building up, something was going to happen.

“You’re quiet,” Mark noted quietly to Matthew as they neared the door to the back rooms. “You’re not losing your nerve or anything, are you? If we need to drop you back off by the safe room...I mean, I kinda get it, this  _ is _ around the area you guys got attacked-”

“No, no, it’s not like that-” Matthew shook his head. “It’s just...sorry, there’s just a lot of things bugging me at the moment. Particularly what we just saw with the monster upstairs.”

Mark frowned slightly. “Yeah, it was more than a little weird. I don’t think any of us have ever seen monsters that just kinda stand still-but I don’t think any of us are familiar with that particular monster, either. Maybe it’s just a thing with that one?”

“Maybe. Or maybe-” Matthew looked thoughtful, glancing over at Mark and the others. “So  _ none _ of you guys noticed it? Nobody else saw it?”

“Saw what?” Tyler asked, eyeing him with uncertainty.

“The way the TV screen seemed to glitch and go static. And then the way the reflection of the monster was in the screen-nobody else noticed?”

Silence followed before Bryan replied honestly, “To be honest, I was focusing a bit more on the monster-” He paused before continuing. “The TV couldn’t have glitched or staticked. The power’s cut, remember? The TV was off.”

“I know it was, and it didn’t ever seem on. Just-in the flashlight beam-” Matthew shook his head, troubled.

“What was going on with the reflection in the screen?” Mark asked.

“It was...different for some reason. Smaller.”

“We were already looking at a pretty small monster, considering what we’ve seen so far,” Tyler pointed out.

“ _ Still. _ The size of the monster didn’t seem to match up with the size of the reflection, even by those standards,” Matthew insisted.

“And that was it? The reflection was  _ just _ smaller?” Mark asked.

Matthew shook his head. “Honestly I couldn’t make out much more details than that,” he replied. “Again, I’m not sure if I was just imagining it or…” Noticing the looks on his friends’ faces, he added with a new, increasing note of doubt, “Probably imagined it.” He shook his head. “ _ Still though _ , that was  _ weird.”  _ He shook his head. “Possibly more importantly though, why was it just  _ standing _ there? Like you guys mentioned, that seems very unusual in what you’ve all seen of monster behavior so far. It didn’t even seem to notice us, which brings me to the question: do these things have a weakness? Is there something that’s just so distracting that it could stop them in their tracks?”

“You mean so we could set up some sort of traps or something,” Mark noted as they slipped just inside the dojo area and swept their flashlights around the area, walking to one side of the paper walls and sliding the doors aside to peek in. But now Mark’s focus was a bit more on the topic at hand, a grin slipping across his face at the discussion. “Or at least distractions. Something that could balance out the playing field, maybe.”

“Come to think of it, we haven’t seen a whole lot of mirrors in this house,” Tyler pointed out.

“Yeah, as far as I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of reflective surfaces down here,” Mark agreed, grin dropping a little at the thought.

“So maybe there’s a reason for that,” Matthew pointed out. “Since they actually  _ do _ seem to affect the monsters’ behavior.”

“If we’re going by reflections though, doesn’t have to be mirrors, Bryan noted. “After all, we  _ did _ see the one we’re talking about distracted by a dead TV.”

“Although again, we don’t know if that goes for all of them or just the one,” Tyler pointed out. “After all, that  _ was _ a new one.”

Matthew made a face. “Just how many monsters are in this place anyway?”

“Too many,” Mark replied honestly. “And from the sound of it, probably a bunch more that we don’t know of.”

Matthew sighed. “Just our luck. Out of the creepy woods and into the hive.”

“Alright, so when we get to that room in the next corridor over,” Mark warned as they filtered into the dojo area and took a look around, shining their flashlights around everywhere. “ _ Be careful. _ If you hear any noises coming from the mats, it’s probably a bad thing.”

“Closets too,” Tyler agreed. Making a face, he added, “Just-consider almost everything in this back area a death trap. Seriously.”

“Comforting,” Matthew muttered as he did one final sweep with his flashlight before they headed into the narrow corridor that connected rooms. The trip was short but tense and really they couldn’t have emerged into the next room faster.

“Okay…” Mark muttered as he shined the flashlight around cautiously, which was joined by three others. “Next room over and that’s really about as far as I’ve explored to this area. That’s where I found Jack passed out.”

The group moved to head into the next room, noticing it white and bare. Although there was nothing of note to be seen in the room, a faint ticking could be heard coming from the light fixture that Mark never actually noticed before.

“Must be the clock,” Bryan muttered, passing his light over it. “We’ll maybe deal with it in a bit?”

“In a bit,” Mark agreed with a nod. He made his way across the room and opened the next door, vaguely relieved it wasn’t locked. The next room was narrow, practically a corridor in and of itself, but it had just enough space to show the bookshelf, as well as a desk with a panel and several screens up above it. This immediately pulled Mark’s attention as he headed over to get a closer look, face suddenly crinkling as his nose wrinkled. “Is this what I think it is? Is this a  _ FNAF station?” _

Matthew blinked, pulling his attention away from the bookcase long enough to walk over and investigate. “Looks kinda like it. Huh,” he noted. “These don’t look like a whole lot of screens though, and I haven’t exactly noticed a lot of cameras set up around the place-at least obvious ones.” He shrugged. “Maybe it mostly just watches the main areas. Hallways and whatnot.”

“Maybe. It would explain why our safe rooms don’t get immediately bombarded, I guess. That or this station just doesn’t get checked very often…” Tyler murmured, going over to check out the bookcase as well and reaching out to grab the little alarm clock off the top shelf. Glancing over at them, he asked, “So what do you guys think? Gather what we find and smash them in the safe room?”

“Yeah, that’ll probably be safest,” Bryan agreed.

“Although technically if these are giving you guys memories, I don’t think I should get very affected if at all. Same goes for Steph,” Matthew pointed out. “It’s not like we really have memories to recall in this place, after all.”

“The memories can get a bit weird though, and still, I agree, it  _ is _ safer,” Mark pointed out. “Especially for the rest of us.”

“I get that,” Matthew murmured with a shrug, now somewhat occupied with giving the bookshelf another sweep. “Later then.”

As they shoved the alarm clock into Bryan’s backpack, Mark moved to check the drawers on the desk, pulling out a couple keys and a slip of paper. All it was marked with was a three. “Okay, well that’s less than helpful right now,” he muttered, shoving the paper into his pocket as he moved to the door at one end of the room. “Going to check in here, okay?” he called over.

Matthew paused from the book he was holding, looking over. “Alright,” he agreed. “Don’t stray far.” Shining his flashlight over the title of the book, he quickly moved to stick it in the backpack with the other one, glancing over at Bryan. “If you need anyone else to carry the backpack at any point, let me know; I know the books are gonna get kinda heavy pretty fast-”

“Nah, I got it,” Bryan replied easily. “For the moment, at least. I’ll let you guys know if I wanna switch out at some point. Second book though…?”

“Looks like it could be part of the set I’m looking into,” Matthew replied. “I mean, can’t say for certain, at least not yet, but…”

Bryan nodded in agreement. “Whatever helps us get a grasp of what’s going on around here,” he muttered, looking around and watching as Tyler followed Mark through the newly-opened door. After a moment, they suddenly heard Mark’s voice.

“Uh-so there’s a cell? There’s a cell in here?”

The other two moved to peer in, and indeed it seemed there was a cell.

“Well, at least we have a place to duck into if the monsters decide to show up,” Matthew noted, more relieved than he thought he’d ever actually be at the prospect of hanging out in a cell. “Assuming it actually does hold decently against them.”

“We can hope,” Mark muttered, glancing down at one of the keys he pocketed. “I wonder if one of these keys work to it.”

He walked over to unlock the door, just to test, just in case worst really did come to worse. To his relief, one of the keys actually did work in unlocking the cell door, which he pulled open.

“Okay, that’s a thing,” he noted. Casting another look around, he added, “And that actually seems to be it as far as the back rooms go. Is there any area on the first floor we  _ haven’t _ checked?”

“The door in the back of the kitchen,” Tyler reminded after a moment of thinking back. “There is a door in the back corner. But it has a big table in front of it and unless it opens from the inside, I don’t think anyone’s moved it yet. Not in this time loop anyway.”

“It’d be just our luck that it does,” Mark muttered. Giving a helpless shrug, he looked back at the others. “I mean-I don’t know. I guess we could give it a shot? Considering the basement door is locked, I don’t think there’s really anywhere else we can check at this point-especially if the other key I found doesn’t work for it.”

Tyler nodded. “Let’s try the door in the kitchen before trying a whole new floor,” he agreed. “And we’ll figure out what exactly to do from there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap it's a new chapter! Uh-hey guys, sorry I missed the last posting date. I kinda had a convention and prepping and work and-well there's just been a solid block of ALL THE THINGS in life. And it's gonna be that way until at least Sunday. So hopefully this is a sign of getting back on track and the next chapter will be coming out on Monday as scheduled. This isn't my favorite chapter but hints! Speculation! Lemme know what you guys are theorizing, as always, I love to read it! And as always, thanks so much for all the support-it really helps with writing and posting! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	38. Chapter 37

The group backtracked through the back rooms and out into the main hallway, turning left to head back to the kitchen.

“I guess if you wanted to hide in a room that seemed inconspicuous…” Mark muttered as Matthew locked the door behind them and moved to join the group.

“Yeah, unless this door leads to a whole other part of the house altogether-c’mon, give me a hand,” Bryan muttered, moving to pull the table away from the door. After a few moments the table was pulled away from the door without too much noise and Mark slipped over to try the other key. To his surprise, it actually worked, the door pulling open.

“Convenient,” he remarked.

“I guess we’re getting to the point where there’s only so many doors left that can actually be locked,” Tyler noted, readying himself as Mark pushed open the door and stepped inside.

A quick glance over the area with flashlights showed that the room really wasn’t very big, serving more so as an oversized pantry and storage area. It was big enough to fit everyone with ease and room to spare, but there didn’t seem to be too much of use: even the food, for the most part, seemed well past its prime. But then one of the flashlight beams came to rest on a safe in the corner.

“Okay. I’m sure there’s something being kept in that safe that could be of some use to us,” Mark noted. “Because what are the odds otherwise?”

“Key to the main door, maybe?” Bryan suggested hopefully. But then a frown crossed his face. “Guessing we’re going to need a code though.”

“Probably,” Tyler agreed.

“Uh, hey guys?” Matthew called over, having reached the end of the shelves lining the wall and aiming his flashlight beam at a space of wall in the corner. “I think I found the fusebox.” Stepping closer, he pulled it open and was disappointed at the interior. “And I’m pretty sure a couple of the fuses are missing.”

“Of course. Go figure, Anti _would_ turn it into another scavenger hunt,” Mark sighed. He shined his own light around the room. “Well-there’s plenty of shelves in this place. I’m sure there’s things we’re gonna need hidden away in here somewhere. Maybe none of the fuses, but…”

“This whole house is like finding needles in a haystack,” Bryan sighed as he set to work searching.

“Yeah, while things hide in said haystack trying to bite you,” Tyler added, joining in. “And kill you.”

There was some silence for a moment as the group focused on looking for any keys or anything-after a moment, Matthew pulled an alarm clock, adding it to the backpack and not too long after, Tyler pulling a key from one of the shelves.

The brunette turned back to the others with a sigh, holding up the key. “Well. Aside from the basement, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of locked areas this could go to, so we’ve got that going for us, at least.”

“At least,” Mark agreed. “I guess back to trying the basement? Maybe that key will actually work on the door.”

“We can hope,” Matthew agreed as the group filtered out of the pantry and back into the kitchen/lounge area. The group made their way back out into the corridor and headed towards the entrance hall-only to see the basement door suddenly swing open a ways up ahead and another group pour out.

Immediately Mark’s eyes lit up as his pace quickened. “Jack? Felix? Ken? Cry?” he called as the others seemed to move faster as well with full-on intent to meet in the middle.

“Wha- _What are you guys doing out here?”_ Felix demanded as soon as the group was closer.

“You guys were gone for over two hours, we _told you_ we were gonna come looking if you were,” Mark explained.

“So the person we heard outside? Yeah, so that was a trap,” Ken replied.

“Considering that Anti’s voice was layered, he can swap over to Jack’s, but also whatever other voice there is in there.” Cry shook his head. “Either way, yeah, Ken’s right. It was definitely a trap. We kinda learned that the hard way.”

“Wonder if the other voice is Anti’s real one or…” Matthew shook his head, a troubled, thoughtful frown on his face.

“Not disconcerting at all,” Bryan muttered.

“Other than that, everyone’s still alive? Everyone’s in one piece and everything?” Mark asked. As he shined a light on the others, his brows furrowed-especially when they landed on Cry. Mask was on and all but his hoodie was completely spotted- “I see bloodstains-?”

“Yeah, uh, had a little bit of a run-in with Anti,” Cry confessed. “Long story short, it’s pretty much like Jack said: I don’t think he really likes Ethan and I very much.”

“ _Christ_ , Cry-” Mark started, but fell silent when a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. Twisting around to look back at Tyler, he slowly turned his head to follow his gaze, to join the gazes of several of the people in the group already.

Standing at the top of the stairs was the monster from the bedroom, staring down at them. Briefly he wondered who noticed it first, because he certainly didn’t hear it coming and any which way up and down the stairs was like staring into a pit or a dark cavern-although now there was a flashlight beam on it. He wasn’t sure whose, but it certainly gave them a decent view of the creature. It was definitely smaller than most of the monsters they’d seen thus far-no taller than him or Jack, really, but still. It stood slender and lithe, compact like a gymnast with eyes that were the standard almond shape and total black but smaller. Its limbs seemed a bit more proportionate, unlike the wendigo-like one, with hands and feet petite but fingers and toes surprisingly long and sharp-tipped. The ears were long and pointed, four tendrils hanging behind its head and stopping at about the shoulders. By far this was the most humanoid-looking of the ones they’d seen so far, and in a sense that also made it all the more unnerving.

The creature stood staring for a long moment, slowly tilting its head to show the long, thin neck as it observed them. Felix opened his mouth to say something but Jack quickly reached out to give his arm a tight squeeze an urge him into a continued silence, remaining otherwise frozen. Mark was about to ask what the hell when Jack released Felix’s arm to reach up and tap his ear quietly, then put his finger to his lips before finally pointing upwards at the creature. The creature in question seemed to blink a few times at the light, but otherwise finally twisted and began to walk off.

And they were almost successful in sliding just past its focus, in going completely unnoticed it seemed-

...Almost.

Matthew let out a held breath as his weight shifted to the heel of his foot, causing a soft _creak_ to issue out.

Catching the attention of the creature at the top of the stairs-

Causing it to suddenly stop and whip back around in a rapid fluidity and pause to stare down again and tilt its head one way, then another as a sort of hissing sound seemed to escape between sharp, somewhat-parted teeth, followed by an odd clicking noise-

“Move,” Jack whispered, finally breaking his frozen form to take a step back.

“What-” Bryan began.

“ _Move! Scatter, now!”_

And suddenly the creature lunged forward with a surprising amount of spring to its launch, landing about five stairs down from its position, then doing it again and continuing rapidly down towards them. The movement seemed to be the cue for everyone to follow Jack’s advice, to scatter but within almost no time at all it was right in the spot they’d all been standing, pausing right at the foot of the stairs with arms hanging lightly at its sides as it looked around, ears seeming to twitch and that odd clicking noise emitting again.

Jack quickly held up a hand, looking around at everyone with wide eyes and bated breath and it wasn’t long after that everyone froze in place. Watching the new creature for a moment, eyeing the twitching ears, the tilting head, Matthew soon realized why.

_It was hearing-based._

Maybe it could see, maybe not quite so much? Certainly not at distances, it seemed like. But of all the monsters to go after them, go figure that it would be this one. Of _course_ it would be this one if it navigated well through sheer sound-in darkness like this, it would easily have the upper hand.

And that was when a whisper suddenly sounded out from behind Ken, shockingly in Jack’s voice but not from his direction.

“ _Over here!”_

Ken whipped around on instinct to look back at the speaker, confusion and disorientation briefly flashing on his face as he remembered Jack had gone the other way, but all he caught was a flash of green that flickered out from view and a little malicious giggle that faded in the air.

“Ken, behind you!” Mark exclaimed. At least two or three flashlight beams were still on the monster, and in the light they could see its lithe figure suddenly whip around on the ball of its foot and dart at Ken with large, graceful strides. Mark quickly darted for the other, moving to jump in between the two with the baseball bat raised. The bat was aluminum, he wasn’t even sure if it was going to _withstand_ a blow from the monster’s fingers, but he had to hope. It would...right? Surely it would-

And as he heard a sudden faint, dull ‘ping’, feeling the force of the monster’s sharp, hard fingers coming down on the bat. He struggled against it, could hear Ken moving behind him as he actually got an up-close view of the creature, a closer look than he’d gotten of any of the monsters in this current loop. Staring into its face as it pushed forward, leaned close to him, he could hear its hisses and clicks, hear its growls, it was borderline feral whatever the _hell_ it was. He didn’t see the other hand suddenly move in to stab him through-

Didn’t feel it either, because it was at that moment that Ken took a shot at it and managed to get it in the shoulder, stopping the blow just in time.

The creature stumbled back but then suddenly twirled on the ball of its foot, using springing steps with its other foot combined by the resulting momentum for quick, graceful movements, sharp fingers out to slash at them. Mark put up his bat to block but the creature lunged forward with its good arm to slash deep gashes into his arm, almost causing him to drop his weapon entirely from the shock and pain of it all. Another step and the the monster’s momentum sent the creature half-past him before bringing down another springing step and nimbly launching forward to put its foot down and do another quick twirl, this time using one of its feet similar to its hand as the toes became akin to swung knives. Ken jumped back, tried to take aim while jerking back but the attack caught him across the stomach nonetheless, ripping open the front of his shirt and cutting deep into the soft flesh of his stomach.

“Ken!” Mark exclaimed, whipping around as he tried to ready his bat again, feeling blood flowing from his arm already, especially as he tensed it to batter up again. He could hear the others moving at this point, a few of them surging forward, but it was at that point he heard Jack’s voice cut through the chaos.

“ _Hey, Abby! What are you even doin’?! You’re after_ **_me_ ** _, remember?!”_ In spite of whatever weariness the Irishman was likely to still be enduring, his voice still held challenge, protective anger even as he raised his arms. “Come at me, bro!”

“Jack!” Felix exclaimed, stopping several feet from the monster- _Abby_ , they could suppose, go figure Jack’s quirk about giving people and monsters nicknames would come into play even in a place like here-and standing in between it and Jack. He cast a quick glance back at Jack but it didn’t last long as he could already hear the creature already bounding forward, twisting back around to flick on the lighter. “Flamey, don’t fail me now-guys _move!_ ”

“Felix-!” Mark started, but everything was happening too fast to stop it. Felix let the hairspray unleash into a small cloud of hellfire, causing the creature to let out a sudden shriek and stagger back with an unusual lack of grace as it covered its face with both hands, only causing its movements to become almost awkward in the process. Jack frowned.

“Felix-” he began, to which Felix glared slightly, back to the Irishman as blue eyes focused on the creature being tracked in the flashlight beam.

“Jack, you asked if we were a team?” he asked. “Yeah, _this is us being a fuckin’ team._ You don’t have to deal with this on your own anymore. You’re _not_ going to deal with this on your own anymore. Because we’re going to help you. Nobody’s running off again on their own and getting themselves hurt or almost dead or _actually dead._ And that includes you. We’re in this together for better or worse and you’re _not_ gonna just be the group lure to get the monsters away from all of us. That’s not what party healer does, after all, and if you think it is then so help me we are never playing Overwatch or gaming in any sort of MMO setting together again once we’re out of here-” Giving a quick nod to Ken and Mark, he added, “Now hurry up and go heal up Ken and the others. _That’s_ your job. _That’s_ how we need you to help.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Jack! We’ve got this!” Matthew called over, gripping the pipe as he hurried over to give Felix a hand. Somewhere in the darkness he could hear Bryan loading up an arrow, calling over to Matthew and Felix to be careful and to move when he fired; somewhere behind the source of the single beam open of light now as all others were gripping their weapons or holding wounds shut he could hear Cry move, keeping his distance but knowing he had knife at the ready. He could hear Tyler’s footsteps edging over to slip protectively between Mark and Ken, caught just the brief glint of light on the blade of the katana.

Jack hesitated, worried eyes lingering on him but beginning to shift and edge around the battle, slow at first but movements gradually becoming a bit more quick. The speed he’d perfected from running away so many times to draw the monsters off after him was now being repurposed for moving carefully around the scene of the chaos to Mark and Ken, for opening the book and lighting up the darkness with his healing spell. The soft sound of ticking filled the air, barely audible over the hissing and growling of the creature at hand.

“I don’t think I need to explain much to ye guys about how this one works at this point,” he said as he maneuvered over, keeping his eyes carefully on the creature-Abby-ever cautious. “This one is very quick and very nimble. Not as fast as Philippe, but still pretty fuckin’ fast and makes up for it in maneuverability. Its sight isn’t very good but...its ears-”

And sure enough the creature’s ears were twitching as its hands remained pressed to its face, over its eyes. Without warning its hands dropped, suddenly making a capoeira-esque leap, a spin and a twirl with fingers and toes bared at Jack-to which Matthew quickly stepped in between and gave a hard swing at the monster with his pipe, knocking it back. The creature flew back and hit the ground with a roll and a tumble before moving back up to its feet, head jerking from side to side as it seemed to try and get a decent idea of its surroundings and its enemy.

“Okay. Yeah. As I thought,” Matthew noted with a tiny, nervous chuckle as he lowered the pipe somewhat but maintained a guarded stance like a baseball batter. An arrow shot by them, which with a twitch of the ears was quickly and easily dodged by the creature. “ _Just as I thought._ So long as we’ve got a light on it, we’ll be fine, we should at least be on equal footing-”

A sudden giggle sounded out that sounded so much like Jack’s, but couldn’t possibly be his. Couldn’t, because Jack was behind him and the sound was coming from the other side of the group, closer to the foot of the stairs.

Couldn’t, because it was coming from behind Cry.

“ _Over here!”_

Cry whipped around in time to dodge the blade that cut into his side, leaving a deep gash, yelping as a weight suddenly tripped him, as if a foot had conveniently appeared by his own moving ones. Matthew could hear the book fall to the floor and Jack wince behind him, heard Cry fall and then suddenly the only thing keeping the cloak of darkness from smothering them was Jack’s healing spell.

“Cry!” Felix exclaimed. Footsteps could be heard hurrying in the masked man’s direction, both his and the monster. Matthew twisted to look back at Jack.

“Gogogo!” he urged before rushing forward to try and help out the pair.

Jack hesitated for a moment, frozen, but then began moving again, limping at first as he tried to shake the staticky feeling in his foot and hands but it was a sensation gone almost as quickly as it’d appeared. Now gradually regaining his speed, he rushed over to Mark and Ken’s side and came to an abrupt stop.

“Ken first,” Mark directed. “He’s hurt worse-”

Jack nodded, quickly bringing the healing orb to Ken’s abdomen. The man grunted and suddenly yelped, nearly staggering back in the shock of steeply-rising pain, but was steadied from behind by Mark.

“Everything okay?” Tyler asked, risking a second to steal a glance at them over his shoulder, but katana still held at the ready-or at least as ready as he figured he could hold it with minimal experience.

“Yeah, we’ve got it-Ken’s going to be fine, don’t worry-” Mark assured. “You gonna help the others?”

“Want to, but not until the sitting ducks aren’t sitting anymore,” Tyler replied, eyeing the chaos going on nearby.

“Sorry-”

“Don’t worry about it, just heal up.”

“Almost over, it’s almost over- _there-_ ” Jack assured, watching last of the wound healed up. “Okay, Mark, now you, hurry-”

Mark quickly shifted over to Jack once sure Ken was steady, glancing back at the group as they could all hear sounds of the skirmish and scuffle going on, toeing the very edge of the circle of light emanating out from Jack’s spell. A beam of light suddenly cut through the darkness from Bryan’s phone, lighting up the darkness once again and returning visibility to the fight at hand. Cry had backed away from the fight (especially since Felix practically shoved him away) and was now partway between groups, knife held up at the ready as if wanting to stay in the fight but reluctantly starting to make his way over for healing. Matthew was getting shots in on the creature whenever able but the sharp, fluid movements were making things difficult-same issue as Felix struggled to get a good angle with the flamethrower without any major risk of hitting the former.

Turning his own attention back to Jack and noticing the Irishman’s worried expression, Mark assured, “We’ve got this.” He drew in a sharp breath of pain as the wound sealed up but pressed through it to give a hurried wave to Cry and urge him over faster, not wanting to prolong the spell more than they needed to. “Don’t worry, Jack, _we’ve got this.”_

Jack blinked, staring for a moment before nodding quickly, watching as the wound quickly finished sealing up. “Okay, go,” he said, giving Mark’s shoulder a quick pat and moving onto Cry. “You _really_ fuckin’ need to stop getting hurt, dude.”

“Sorry there’s a psychopath that’s out for my blood?” Cry offered distractedly, keeping an eye on the fight at hand as Ken flicked on his flashlight as well while Mark moved forward to join the fight.

_“Abby! Here now! Over here!”_

The voice was suddenly _much_ closer to Jack, Cry and Tyler now with Jack instinctively grabbing Cry and hauling him to the side while Tyler spun to look back at the speaker, a glimpse of green suddenly vanishing before their eyes. Without warning the monster suddenly tore away from the fighting group, bolting across the stretch to reach them. Tyler whipped back around just in time to catch the monster on his blade, pushing it forward in spite of the gashes it was tearing across his arms and torso and using its own momentum against it.

A soft screech was heard from the creature as it flailed and Tyler shot a glance to the others. “I’ve got it! Someone stop it or something!”

Ken hurried to level his gun at the monster, taking aim and firing. At about the same moment the monster twisted to jerk itself off the sword, fluidly spinning a leg upward in the movement only for the limb to take the bullet instead and landed awkwardly. Another screech was heard and again as an arrow pierced its torso. Breathing becoming a bit ragged, it ripped itself away from the blade of the sword and staggered back before suddenly making a limping break for it, back into the darkness down the hall and toward the basement.

“Yeah, and stay the fuck away!” Felix shot after it, looking over at the others. “Well, we didn’t _kill_ it, but…”

“But we won. We _won,”_ Mark agreed, looking over at Jack with a look of slight victory on his face. “We ever done that before?”

“...A few times,” Jack replied vaguely, staring after the monster with wide eyes. But not wanting to take their victory away from them, he added, “But after losing more people on our own end, usually.”

“See? We can _do this_ , we stand a chance!”

Jack bit his lip, uncertain, but for the sake of the others he allowed a tiny smile to tug at the corners of his lips.

He didn’t want to mention that Abby was one of the weaker ones.

He didn’t want to mention how many times he’d heard that reassurance before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So finally, a victory! However long that might last. Sorry this was a bit late, still dealing with the business of life over here, but I think it's finally starting to settle down some. I'll try and be back on the four-day schedule from here on out. In the meantime, thanks so much for the support, it really helps with writing and posting. And keep speculating! It really helps with my pacing and whatnot, plus it's just fun to see in general. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	39. Chapter 38

“Yeah. Okay. Well let’s hope so, let’s not jinx it,” Jack agreed. Turning his attention on Tyler as he finished healing up Cry, he muttered, “ _ Christ _ , Tyler, how are you even still-? Here-”

Indeed, the sleeves to Tyler’s shirt were practically shredded as his arms were practically in bloody ribbons. It was amazing he could even manage to keep a handle on the katana still gripped tightly in his hands, although Jack suspected part of it was from a rather heavy shot of adrenaline. As the group regathered, more lights flickered on around them, sweeping the area in silent vigil, focusing on the injury as Mark carefully took the katana from Tyler’s hands so Jack could heal his arms up a bit better and so it wouldn’t be dropped in the process.

Tyler winced as he watched the blood slowly seep back into the wounds. “Thanks, Jack…” he muttered, biting hard on his lip and letting out a grunt as the wounds began to reseal. They were deep, nasty-looking-briefly one had to wonder just how much Jack was used to looking at this or worse because the Irishman didn’t even flinch. Rather, Jack’s expression remained intent and ever-focused at the task at hand.

“We should get back up to the safe room,” Matthew suggested quietly. “Before anything else comes calling.”

“Agreed,” Felix seconded. “Once Tyler’s healed up, let’s get the fuck outta here. We have a few findings we want to talk about anyway.”

“Good, us too,” Matthew agreed.

It was a couple agonizing minutes and an active struggle to keep quiet enough before Jack finally finished with the healing. Cry meanwhile occupied himself with keeping an eye out for green eyes, briefly wondering if he could become outright invisible too. Considering how he seemed to practically teleport-although maybe it just seemed that way. “Hey, Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“Can Anti go invisible or do you even know-? I mean, I don’t want us to accidentally lead him up to the safe room or anything…”

Jack shook his head. “No. Uh-no, not that I’m really aware of. I’ve seen him in a sort of shadow form, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him completely invisible, no.”

“Well you  _ wouldn’t _ , he’d be invisible,” Bryan pointed out.

“Bryan’s got a point,” Ken agreed, allowing a slight grin to come to his face regardless of the seriousness of the situation.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Ye know what I mean, smartasses,” he muttered, finally allowing the spell to flicker out. “Um-so yeah, shadow form. In that regard I assume he just took advantage of the surrounding darkness to travel.”

“So keep an eye on any weird shadows. Got it,” Tyler muttered, picking at his now-shredded blood-soaked sleeves.

Jack nodded, pausing as his eyes swept the area and for a brief flicker, the heaviness of anxiety weighed on his face. Upon realizing the issue, Bryan walked over to pick up the book and hand it over to the Irishman. “Here. How’d you end up dropping it anyway?”

Jack took the book but about froze at the question before looking up at Bryan. “Just…” He took the book (a bit quicker than he would’ve preferred to) before continuing his answer and giving a small shrug. “Guess my hand just sort of...slipped.”

Cry’s eyes lingered on the book and the hands clutching them, then moved back up to stare at Jack. But he didn’t say anything. Not now, not just yet. He wasn’t about to call the other out in front of everyone, especially while they were still trying to rebuild trust and confidence issues with the other man. But...still, just…

Something about all of this really wasn’t sitting with him right.

Anti had hinted that either something was about to happen or that it had already happened. If it was more so the former...yeah, Cry was determined to get to the bottom of it before it was too late. If it was the latter, if something had already happened, then he’d figure out how to deal with it, and the sooner they found out what that was, the better.

The group finally filtered upstairs with phones and flashlight illuminating their paths. Mark stole a glance at Matthew.

“By the way, you did pretty well for your second confrontation,” he remarked. “Honestly I think more than one of us kinda just froze up in similar situations.”

“Thanks. Kinda hoping not to become  _ too _ jaded,” Matthew replied, giving Mark a sort of grin in return. But then he shrugged. “I mean, I’d really rather  _ not _ be in a real life horror game, but if we have to, it’ll be better and easier on us to push on through-” He paused. “Besides, I’m in good company and you guys seem to know what you’re doing, and...if it comes to a point where one of those  _ things _ attacks Stephanie…”

Mark blinked, but then grinned a bit, barely holding back an odd sort of laugh. “Hey, not that I don’t respect you for that. Believe me, I do-the part with Steph, I mean? But the part where we all seem to know what we’re doing…” He shook his head. “I don’t want to alarm you or anything, but I’m pretty sure we don’t.”

Matthew grinned at this. “Then you guys fake it pretty well, at least,” he replied. “Fake it to make it, right?”

At this Mark actually did let a chuckle slip out. “If that’s all it takes, then I seriously hope so,” he agreed.

As the group reached the top of the stairs and got to the main second floor hallway, they started to move to turn down the right back corridor, back towards the safe room.

A noise coming from the left back corridor caused them all to freeze, all to turn and look back at the source of it. Whatever it was, it was big. The floorboards groaned heavily underneath it as it shifted, and as it took a step forward, they could feel the surrounding area practically  _ rattle. _

One glance at Jack’s expression was all that was needed for explanation, for Ken, Felix and Cry anyway. And as a flashlight beam fell upon the creature, the horror and tenseness in Jack’s form and features was explained to those outside of the loop.

They stared at the massive creature, the one that looked like Steve but with a shorter neck, a larger form with muscles bulging, towering even from its distance as it stared down at them.

“Ryuzuu…” Jack whispered, panic edging at his voice.

“ _ Fuck-” _ Felix hissed.

“Ryuzuu?” Matthew repeated.

“ _ That’s _ Ryuzuu?” Ken whispered.

"Oh. Oh great. Ryuzuu's a gray alien knockoff of the Hulk. Good to know," Mark whispered.

Cry was as frozen as Jack was if not more, eyes wide as his mind flashed back to the memory from Jack, remembering the fight between Ethan and Ryuzuu. “Yeah, no, this thing isn’t going down so easily-”

And that’s when it shifted forward, each of its footsteps causing further rattles to reverberate around it.

Jack didn’t wait long after that.

“ _ Run! _ ” he instructed, moving back out into the main hallway.

“The safe room-” Ken began as he and the others moved to follow.

“Will be compromised if we go that way!”

“Then where to?” Bryan questioned.

Jack paused at the top of the stairs, looking around frantically. The beast was approaching-not moving quickly but getting steadily closer with each step. “Downstairs.” He continued speaking as he began to bolt down the stairs. “We need to get to one of the cells, now!”

The group moved to follow and it was that rapid movement that seemed to set the monster off. Ryuzuu tore down the stairs after them, managed one final leap down most of the bottom half to land in the middle of the group at the foot of the stairs with an impact that almost shook them all off balance. All confidence the group had seemed gone now, replaced by panic and survival instinct; this was one they probably couldn’t hope to win against in a fight, certainly in these conditions. Now with the group split in half by the creature, Jack’s eyes widened as Felix’s met his on the other side.

There was only a split-second of hesitation before Felix licked his lips nervously, swallowed hard, then shouted, “Hey!  _ Din jävla fitta-!” _

“Felix-!” Jack began, taking a small step forward as the monster whipped around to face the Swede, as well as Mark, Ken and Bryan.

“Basement. Go, go, go-!” Felix muttered to the closest person behind him-Ken-as they began backing away from the monster. Looking to Jack, he said, “Go on ahead, we’ll catch up!”

“But there’s a monster down there-!”

“She’s injured; we’ll be fine, just go!”

And that was about all the time he took before he turned on his heel as well and bolted down the hall with the others, Ryuzuu taking off after them.

Jack started to take a step forward as he watched the other group one by one rush down into the basement. Cry however grabbed his arm and pulled him back, shaking his head firmly. “They’ll be fine, there’s a cell down there. C’mon, we need to get to safety too so we can find them later.”

Before Jack could argue too much, he was quickly pulled to the door that led to the back rooms, followed by Matthew and Tyler. The others weren’t too sure if the such a giant monster like Ryuzuu would actually be able to  _ follow _ the others down into the basement, considering how small and narrow the stairway was-but they certainly didn’t want to stick around and find out. Through the dojo, through the narrow corridor, into the room attached to that-

“Wait,” Jack said, suddenly stopping and subsequently tugging Cry to a stop. The others paused to look back at him as Jack pulled away from Cry to look around for a moment, finally stopping by one of the floor mats. Dropping down to a kneel, he pulled up the mat and moved it aside. “There’s this place too. The annex. We need to check it out anyway, so-”

“Isn’t our main priority hiding from-what did you call it? Ryuzuu?” Matthew asked, walking over to peer down into the void below. A rope ladder hung from the edge, dangling down into the darkness.

“So long as we’re quiet enough and make sure to cover our tracks, I don’t think Ryuzuu will be expecting us down here. Or any of the monsters, for that matter-” Jack paused, muttering under his breath, “Unless any of the others are already down there.” He hesitated at this thought, adding, “Maybe I should go down there first.”

“Like hell you are-” Cry began.

Tyler looked over at the floor mat a ways away that was already disturbed, most likely the one that busted up via monster attack when it was just Mark and Cry. As he moved the mat back into place, he rolled his eyes. “Guys,  _ I’ll _ go.”

“What? No-” Jack began.

“The monsters are after you and Cry more than Matt and I and I’ve probably got the better weapon-” He glanced over at Matthew’s pipe-it might’ve been a contest, actually, depending on if the more effective damage was slicing versus blunt force trauma. But he then shook his head. “I’ll go down first, you guys just have someone shining a flashlight on my way down.”

Jack frowned as Tyler prepared himself, getting into position to climb down into the annex. Cry moved to shine the flashlight down into the hole, helped as well by Matthew, and all eyed the descent with apprehension and worry. But finally Tyler set foot on the ground below, pulling out his phone to shine his own flashlight around. “Huh. Weird.”

“What’s weird?” Matthew called down.

“Even with the flashlight, it’s kinda…” He paused for a moment, seeming to think of the best way to describe it. After a moment, he looked back up at them. “Foggy almost?”

“Yeah, that’s generally how it is. That’s actually nothing new. Not sure  _ why _ , exactly, but I know it’s not gonna kill ye,” Jack assured as he moved to clammer onto the ladder as well. Before anyone could stop him, he descended down to join Tyler and look around, and both were soon followed by Matthew and Cry, who pulled the mat back into place before beginning his own descent.

Flashlights sweeping the area, they could see that the room was actually pretty empty, just a single pair of doors that led into the next room.

“So what all can we expect to find down here?” Matthew whispered as he looked around.

“Uh-” Jack turned, pointing to the door. “That leads into a corridor. Which leads into a bigger corridor. Which has doors to two separate rooms-” He paused. “And one of them leads off into another room. There’s a puzzle to get into the last area, but normally the last area holds a key or a code or somethin’ useful.”

“Puzzles. Huh, yeah, okay. We can do puzzles, yeah,” Matthew noted, scratching his neck as he peered through the mist.

“Any hiding places down here if we end up needing it?” Tyler questioned, eyes sweeping the area.

“An armoire in the last room? A few tables to hide under, maybe? Ah-but tables normally aren’t very good hiding spots-” Jack winced a bit at this. “Sorry, this was probably a sort of bad idea-”

“Nah, man, we’re probably still good,” Cry reassured. “Like you said, it doesn’t seem too likely that Anti’s gonna guess we’re down here. And we’ve got legs-we can still run.”

“Yeah, but running through this area…” Jack began as the group headed through the door into a bare corridor, then another. The air was cool and humid, the floorboards black with the walls a dull white. “It’s honestly less than ideal.”

“We’ll manage,” Cry reassured as he looked around, from one door to the left to another right in front of them. “Somehow.” He paused. “Which way?”

“Depends on where it is you want to go,” Jack replied.

“Whichever makes the most sense?” Matthew suggested, giving Jack a sideways look and a shrug. “You remember this area more than any of us do.”

Jack considered this for a moment before nodding. “Fair enough,” he muttered, doing a quick turn into the door on the left and pushing it open. The others stuck close behind, filing in after him and sweeping the area with light. There really wasn’t much in the room-just a black table in the center, a switch in the corner.

“This switch is part of the puzzle, which is over in the main room. It’s not a  _ hard _ puzzle-just something that’s a bit timing and memory-based. It’s just-” Jack hesitated as he thought back to the puzzle from past loops. “It’s normally better if there’s five or six people doing it as opposed to four, because this is a part of it. We’ve managed on a few rare times, but running over normally takes a few more seconds than we’re allotted.”

“So there’s no way of getting into the last room?” Tyler asked, brows furrowing.

“We can maybe give it a shot,” Cry suggested. “See how well it goes. Even if we can’t manage it on our own, we’ll hopefully get a decent idea of how to prepare for a second attempt.”

“It’s certainly worth a try,” Matthew agreed with a nod. “Just let us know what to do.”

Jack eyed the group for a moment before nodding. “This is going to be much harder without any lights…” he muttered, making his way back out of the room after giving it a quick sweep and heading over to the other room at the end of the hall, throwing the door open and stepping into what looked like a library. In front of him was a lever and a large table beyond that. Going further into the room were six bookshelves and three other levers, one for each wall of the room-and then off on the right wall was a door.

“So the idea of the puzzle is to get the thing started,” Jack explained as he shined the light from one lever to the next. “And then it’s pretty similar to one of those Simon Says toys. Someone throws the switch in the other room to start the puzzle. Sounds are emitted from beneath certain levers at certain times and the right lever has to be pulled the appropriate number of times to match it. Of course all this has to be memorized and done just right ‘cause the levers are locked otherwise when it’s doing the little tune or whatever to replicate.”

“That sounds easy enough to do though,” Matthew reassured. “I mean, sounds like a standard video game puzzle”

“Yes, but then there’s the switch, because the switch is occasionally included in replicating the tune as well once the thing gets started. You’re given a five-second window to start mimicking once it falls onto being your turn, which is a very small window to travel by when you have to go from the switch to even the closest lever. And then you have to hear the parts in the other room clearly enough to mimic. Which is why-again-it’s generally better to do this with five or six people.” Jack winced a bit as he added, “And with light.”

“Hm-really this would be better if we had a couple more flashlights, but…” Cry began, heading over to the table and moving to stack some of the books into a small tower. “Really the only path we need to light up is for the person making the back and forth run-right?”

Tyler nodded, leaning his phone against the tower to light up the door behind them. “Jack, you’re the one that’s been outrunning the monsters all this time anyway. You think you can do the run to the switch and back?”

Jack looked uncertain. “I might could, and I could probably run this area blind. Uh-but we’ve tried similar before and even I’m not fast enough.”

“We can give it one or two tries-” Matthew began, but paused. “This isn’t going to end up like the ducks in Kindergarten if we get it wrong, right? It’s not going to blow anybody’s head off?”

“No, it won’t do that,” Jack assured. “But don’t give Anti any ideas in case he has any way of listening in, Jesus.”

It took a couple minutes for everyone to get into position, Jack standing at the ready between the lever and the door. “Alright, everyone ready?” he asked. “I’m gonna go hit the switch; everyone needs to listen carefully and memorize the pattern until they hear something that sounds a bit like a school bell. That's the starting signal.”

“We got it. Let’s do this,” Cry affirmed, grabbing his lever lightly but ready. The others followed in suit.

Jack watched for a moment, but in the darkness there really wasn’t all that much to see-and it was a scene he’d seen before anyways. “Everyone just pay attention…” he murmured before slipping out of the room. He wanted to add ‘and stay aware’, remembering the times monsters had ambushed them during this process when they’d tried it with only four people or so, but he didn’t want to distract them from the job at hand. It would have to be his job to keep an eye out and keep them safe.

Regardless of what anyone tried to assure him, it would always be his job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh, not my favorite chapter but Ryuzuu has finally been officially introduced. That's always fun (and terrifying). In the meantime, thanks so much for your support, really helps with writing and posting. Keep on theory-crafting, it helps a lot with my pacing and is always fun to read! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	40. Chapter 39

“You really think this is going to work?” Matthias asked as Ethan settled back down on the bed. Three pairs of eyes stood around him, watching him intently.

“To be honest, I literally have no idea guys,” Ethan confessed.

“And you’ve done this how many times so far?” Stephanie questioned.

“What? Slept or been unconscious in this house? Twice,” Ethan replied.

“And both times you were having the vivid dreams?”

Ethan hesitated for a moment to think back to his first dream, the one just before waking up after almost dying. He couldn’t remember it to well at this point and what he could remember seemed...almost too unbelievable to be real. That swirling vortex around him, Jack’s horrified face, the roar that drowned out both of them-

But what he could remember seemed way too vivid to be just some abstract dream. Too vivid and just…

Like the dream he just had, it felt too real with a feeling of deja vu that was just too strong to ignore.

“Yeah, I-” Ethan shook his head. “Yeah that. Yeah both of them are that. I seriously think they’re real, guys, maybe even connected. And that they’re either a memory or...or maybe even a warning-?” He frowned, casting a glance around to take in their faces. “Either way, at the very least, I don’t think this something we should just ignore. And I don’t see what we’ve got to lose from trying this, so…”

Sucking in a deep breath, he laid down to settle his head on the pillow. “Let’s do this. Let’s try and find some answers,” he said. After all, not too much else they could really do while waiting for the others to get back. Maybe this was something that would actually be helpful. He let his eyes slide shut, trying to force his mind to go blank...so far it really wasn’t much good. His eyes fluttered open again and he looked around at everyone before rolling his eyes in exasperation.

“Gonna be kinda hard getting to sleep when everybody’s staring at me and putting on pressure-”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s-c’mon-” Matthias said, giving J-Fred a small pat on the shoulder and move to direct him away. “C’mon, maybe we can help Steph with finding anything else that might’ve gotten missed.” To Ethan, he added in, “Don’t forget to count sheep.”

Ethan barely managed to suppress a snort at the absurdity of it, at the absurdity of this whole damn situation. This was crazy. The whole thing was crazy, ever since they arrived this house so many cycles ago. And it looked like the insanity train wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon if this kept up. How did he land himself into the middle of this again?

“Right. You guys do the hard stuff, I’ll just...just nap.” Blue-green eyes slid shut again as he tried clearing his mind, listening to the lulling murmurs of the others and letting it aid him in drifting back off to sleep-

_“Pressure. We’ve gotta put pressure on these wounds-” Ethan instructed as he anxiously stared down at Jack. They had to work fast, they didn’t have a whole lot of time. He could already see the light starting to drain out of Jack’s eyes-well, what little light hadn’t been worn down anyway. As Mark got up and practically bolted over to the bed, Ethan tore his eyes away for just a moment to cast a glance at the door. It couldn’t have been more than a minute but it felt like an eternity: where the hell was Felix? He was supposed to be here by now with the book._

_In a flash Mark was beside him with a bedsheet, bunching it up and leaning forward to press it to the holes in Jack’s chest. The wounds were narrow but significant; they were bleeding heavily and dangerously close to where Ethan would’ve pegged the heart to be. Those claws likely either knicked an artery or did direct damage to the heart-oh god none of those were good-_

_“G...guys…” Jack whispered, barely audible as he stared up at them, his voice sluggish and almost slurred as if he was half-asleep._

_“Hang in there, Jack. Just hold on, we’re going to get you healed up-” Mark ordered, his voice saturated with urgency._

_“Shouldn’t...shouldn’t use the-” Jack’s words were interrupted with a rough cough and oh god there was blood there too and-_

_Ethan frowned, looking down at his book as his mind raced to find an alternative way to get Jack healed up or at least patch up the wound a little bit. Something that could help him to pull through, something...c’mon-_

_“I still have the key.”_

_Jack’s words pulled Ethan’s attention back from the pages of the book as he looked up at the Irishman, the blunette blinking a few times with wide eyes. “Huh?”_

_“I have the…” Jack’s hand weakly went for his jeans pocket, pulling something from it. “Everyone-still alive-?”_

_Mark exchanged a glance with Ethan, who nodded. “Y...yeah, everyone’s alive. Last time I checked, everyone was fine-”_

_“Good,” Jack muttered. “Fifty-seven times...yer all...finally-”_

_“You’re getting out of here too,” Mark cut off, frowning through the tears that were beginning to brim in his eyes. “We’re going to get you healed up. As soon as Felix comes here, we’re going to get you all healed up. You’re getting out of here just like the rest of us, we’re_ ** _this close,_** **_don’t you dare give up-_** _”_

_“Mark, I…” The Irishman stared up at Mark with blue eyes that were helpless and worn, but...relieved._

_“Why did you do it?” Mark demanded. “Why did you do it, you idiot, why did you jump in the way-”_

_“Couldn’t just stand by and watch you die again,” Jack whispered. “Especially when we’re so...so close…” In spite of his state a weak glimmer of a smile graced his lips. “Idiot.” His eyes continued to stare up at Mark for a few long moments as if debating on something before they shifted to look over at Ethan. “Hey, if I die here, don’t-”_

_“Nonononono-Jack don’t you dare-don’t you_ **_dare_ ** _start talking like that, you’re going to survive this, we’re all going to get out of here. No man left behind-” Mark argued, but Jack ignored it. The Irishman knew he’d never win such an argument against him, knew that if he got into such an argument, he’d never get the chance to say what he felt needed to be said._

_“Ye all have the key now. Ye all can leave. If I don’t make it just…” Jack’s eyes slid shut for a moment as he struggled to breathe. “Just…” His voice was suddenly disrupted by choking coughs and he leaned to the side for a moment, continuing in a rasp. “Leave. Run and don’t look...don’t look back. Forget about me-”_

_A horrified frown crossed Ethan’s face as he shook his head fiercely. “No-”_

_“Please don’t turn back time again._ **_Please,_ ** _” Jack begged. “This is your one...chance… I finally did what I needed to do-”_

_“Jack-”_

_“Ye all protected me so many times.” Tears were clouding the Irishman’s eyes now in spite of the smile on his face. “Let me do this, please, just once let me do this-”_

_“Jack!” Mark tried, panic starting to creep into his features. “Jack, you’re going to be okay, don’t you dare talk like this! And-”_

_“So just survive this and run...then just through the door…” Jack cleared his throat as best he could but it was really only in vain. “And I think I got ye all out,” he whispered, one of the tears escaping his eyes and slipping down his face. It was at that moment that the full realization of their situation finally seemed to hit him. “Oh thank god. I think I finally got ye all out.”_

_And on his face was a look of almost pure joy and relief...marred only by the sadness of regret._

_“I only wish I could go...go with you…” he choked out._

_Mark shook his head, looking over at Ethan. “Ethan, you take over putting pressure on his injury, I’m gonna go help Felix. He’s taking too long-”_

_“Mark-” Ethan began as he shifted over to take over with the sheet but froze when the person underneath exhaled and just...stopped._

_Just stopped._

_“Mark!”_

_“Jack?!”_

_“Jack!”_

_“He’s not breathing-!”_

_“Nonononono-Jack don’t you dare, stay with us!_ **_Jack!_ ** _”_

Ethan suddenly shot up, eyes wide and wild, trying to catch his breath. His mind struggled to shift gears, to acclimate back to reality and remember just where and when he was and all that had led up to this point. It was never really an issue before but for just a fleeting moment he suddenly had an idea of what it was like whenever Jack would wake up.

Luckily it didn’t take long, and as eyes adjusted to darkness and swept his surroundings, things began clicking together again and he suddenly noticed that _shit it was suddenly quiet._ No. Not just quiet because that was kind of a goal for people hiding out. No, this wasn’t just volumes dropped, fewer people speaking at this point, there was just less movement and life in the place overall.

No, when he looked around, only one lone figure moved as well-one who looked up when he heard Ethan’s movements and twisted around to shine a flashlight beam onto his face.

“Glad to see you’re awake,” J-Fred sighed, sounding a little relieved from what might’ve been a brewing impatience.

“Where did Matt and Steph go?” Ethan wondered as his eyes did another glance around the room on practically their own accord.

“They heard some sort of commotion going on downstairs and went to investigate-” J-Fred began, but then fell short and frowned in a faltering concealment of his worry. “Did it work? Did you remember anything?”

Ethan opened his mouth a few times, shut it again. His frown deepened as he recalled the dream, still fresh in his mind. He could still feel the soaked warm sheet under his hands and Mark’s shouts were still ringing in his ears. He was almost positive now. There was no way this was actually just some dream.

Finally he nodded shakily. “Yeah,” He replied. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I did. The dream was just…” He then shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. “It _really_ wasn’t a dream. All of it was just too real…”

Sensing J-Fred’s eyes on him, expectant and waiting, he continued, “I’m pretty sure it was a past loop.” Feeling more confidence enter his voice as things began clicking together, he continued, “The _end_ of a past loop. We all had the key. We were this close of getting out of here-”

J-Fred brightened at this. “So then maybe it was a vision of the future. Considering time seems to be really weird here. Maybe you actually saw us all getting out-”

“No,” Ethan replied, shaking his head. “No, it was definitely the past.”

J-Fred face fell, becoming a frown. “How could you tell?”

“MatPat and Steph weren’t there,” Ethan replied.

“Maybe they weren’t with the group? Or maybe they…?” J-Fred’s frown deepened at this as he shook his head. “Okay, say it was a memory of a past loop. You said we all had the key, so I take it we were all alive. We were about to get out, so...why didn’t we? If that’s the case then why are we all still stuck doing this?”

Ethan shifted a little bit. The dreamed memory still lingered at the forefront of his mind, too intense and too alarming to forget anytime soon. As the details swirled through his brain, he finally looked back up at J-Fred with a face turned pale.

“Because somebody did die,” he whispered. “There was a battle...last I remember of it I think we were doing pretty decent but…then Mark almost got impaled-”

“Woah, wait- _almost?_ Did Mark end up getting killed? _”_

“Almost,” Ethan confirmed with a small nod. “But he didn’t because someone jumped in the way and took the blow instead. He saved him, he-” Meeting J-Fred’s eyes, he concluded, “He jumped in the way. Joey- _Jack died in that loop._ ”

J-Fred stared at Ethan with wide eyes for a moment, but then shook his head. “Wait. Wait, hold on. Jack said he hasn’t actually ever died. And...and really he couldn’t have. Right? If Jack died then we wouldn’t have been able to restart the loop.”

“Wouldn’t we?” Ethan questioned. “Jack restarts the loop by using the book. Right? But we’ve seen Cry use the book too. Granted it’s only for healing but-”

“So you think Cry might’ve reset the loop this time?” J-Fred asked. “Wouldn’t that mean he’d keep memories of that one, at least? I mean after all, Jack seems to.”

“He-he might’ve?” Ethan agreed, looking a little confused. “But I mean, Cry was unconscious in the memory. I-I guess he could’ve woken up but…” He paused. “Look. Cry or not, _nobody_ seems to remember any of this-”

“Except you,” J-Fred pointed out. “You do. And in a really weird way that doesn’t match up with the rest of us.”

Ethan stared at him for a moment with wide eyes. “You think _I_ turned back time?” But then he shook his head, hand shifting to rest over the book he’d been using. “No. No way-that-that’s not even the book that I use-”

But even as he spoke, his disbelief was slipping away more and more. Fragments of previous dreams and something else was swirling through his mind. As J-Fred spoke, he barely even heard his voice-it was all getting swallowed up by a tinning noise and noises from a former loop-by voices-

 _“Dammit, Jack._ **_Fucking dammit!_ ** _” Felix. Felix sounding more than just a little upset, his voice rough with what sounded like tears._

_“We were all supposed to get out…” Ken, voice quiet._

_“We still have the key. We can all leave now, just…” Matthias, troubled._

_“That’s what Jack would’ve wanted.” His own voice, soft, rough, struggling to be strong and not break. Not in front of all these guys, no. He just...couldn’t. “He begged on his last breath for us to all get out of here.”_

_“But we can’t do that, we can’t-” Mark’s voice stopped abruptly before continuing. “We all made a promise. Didn’t we? No man left behind. And we fucking drilled it home to Jack that that included him too!”_

_“Yeah, but…”_

_“Jack wouldn’t want to be put through more loops. We all saw how it was tearing him apart,” Tyler reminded gently._

Ethan’s eyes slid shut to try focusing harder on the voices, straining his mind to remember.

_Suddenly he was back in the room, standing there with his friends, some unconscious, some bloodied and injured but alive. All but one._

_All but Jack._

_“So maybe Jack doesn’t have to do that again,” J-Fred suggested. “It was all the memories that were building up that were messing with him. Right? That and what happened in the original loop?”_

_“So what are you suggesting?” Felix asked, looking over at him._

_Bryan stared at J-Fred for a moment before shaking his head and letting out a sigh, running his hand back through his hair. “Shit. Yeah. We need to turn back time again.”_

_“But-”_

_“If one of us does it, then maybe Jack won’t remember things. Maybe...maybe he’ll just be like all of us.”_

_“But then that puts one of us in his situation,” Mark pointed out. “Besides, we wouldn’t even begin to know how to do it-”_

_Ethan’s eyes lingered on his own book next to him for a moment before they slowly drifted to settle on Jack’s book. His lips pursed before he rose to his feet, walking over to pick up the book._

_“I can do it,” he offered._

_“What? Ethan. No-” Mark began, wiping tears from his face as his frown deepened, moving to his feet._

_“Yes,” Ethan countered. “I-look guys. I don’t know what all this entails but-what I_ **_do_ ** _know is that it seems to be pretty much magic. I’ve_ **_been_ ** _doing magic since we got here. It seems like I would be the most obvious choice.”_

_“You realize what you’d be signing up for?” Tyler pressed. “You’ve seen what it’s done to Jack.”_

_Ethan nodded shakily. “Yeah,” he replied, hoping he appeared more confident and sure about this than he actually felt. “Yeah, I know. But somebody’s gotta do it. Right? We can’t just leave Jack hanging.” He bit his lip and nodded, more resolutely this time, his mind made up. “I’m going to turn back time.” His eyes swept the group, almost challenging anyone to argue further. “I’m going to need a few minutes to figure out how to do this-and I’m going to need you guys to cover me in the meantime. Especially once I get this spell going.”_

_“Ethan, you don’t have to do this-” Mark started._

_“Yeah. I do,” Ethan replied firmly. Sucking in a breath, he affirmed, “I do.”_

_“All you’ll get sent back with is the book, right?” Matthias reminded. “If that’s the case, we should probably take the main key and hide it so that Anti doesn’t get his hands on it.”_

_“Ah-yeah,” Mark agreed as Ethan held up the key._

_Matthias took it, glancing briefly down at Jack before looking back up at others with a frown. “Joey and Bryan and I will go hide this. Why don’t you guys figure out how to get that book working in the meantime. I know you’re not gonna want to leave Jack until the end and…” He glanced back at Cry’s unconscious figure. “Besides, somebody should probably stay with Cry, make sure he’s protected.”_

_“Are you sure you guys are gonna be safe? Maybe we should have one or two other people-” Mark began worriedly, voice broken. Ethan knew his friend well enough to know that wasn’t going to clear up anytime soon._

_Matthias shook his head in response though. “Bigger group is gonna draw more attention faster. Look, we’ll be okay. We shouldn’t be gone for any longer than twenty minutes. We just need to find a really good hiding spot.” Giving Mark his best reassuring smile under the circumstances, he added, “Don’t worry. We’ll be fine; we’ll be back sooner than you know it.”_

_“Not that it’s gonna matter too much once time’s reversed, but…” Tyler began, but then he shook his head. “Still. Hurry back.”_

_Matthias nodded, moving to head out with the others, pausing for just a moment to glance over at Ethan, who was picking up Jack’s book and beginning to flip through it. “Good luck.” With that said, the trio disappeared through the door to set out._

_As the seconds and minutes ticked by, Ethan proceeded to busy himself with flipping through the pages of the book, trying to make heads or tails of it, trying to put himself in Jack’s shoes, in Cry’s shoes. How did they manage to figure out how it worked-well. Jack may have had a bit of instruction from Anti. Cry had pulled off healing, but surely that was nothing like this. This was probably somewhat different-_

_Ugh._

_How the hell was he supposed to figure this out?_

_More time passed, about fifteen minutes before his concentration was suddenly interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps. His head jerked up, eyes wide as he looked over towards the door. A quick glance around the room told him that he wasn’t the only one to notice the noise either. Mark glanced over at Ethan, met his eyes._

_“Ethan-?”_

_“I-I haven’t figured it out yet-” Ethan confessed with a frown, reaching over to grab his other book in preparation._

_Felix let out a string of Swedish curses, readying his flamethrower. “Well keep looking,” he instructed._

_“But-”_

_“We’re going to cover you, just hurry.”_

_Ethan frowned, watching as everyone scrambled around him, moving to get into defensive and ambush positions around the door as he backed up a bit in the meantime to stand next to Jack’s body as he continued flipping through the pages with increasing urgency. “C’mon...c’mon, the spell, where is it-”_

_As he flipped the book to start at the front again, he suddenly stopped as his eyes fell upon some messy handwriting._

_Jack’s handwriting._

_As his brain took a moment to comprehend it-and furthermore struggle to get over the shock and horror of the ingredient used-he heard the lock break and the door fly open. His head jerked up, eyes wide, but he shook his head and tried to ignore it, tried to tune out that Ryuzuu was now here and about to kill all of his friends in front of him. Kneeling down next to Jack and pushing the sheet away, he reached down to dip his finger into the blood of one of Jack’s wounds._

_“I’m sorry…” he whispered. For turning back time against his wishes? For desecrating the dead? All of the above? “I’m sorry.”_

_Flipping the book open to the inside of the back cover, he eyed the larger clock and all the caked streaks of red from past loops. Their blood, had to be. He knew that now._

_His bloodied finger reached over to the clock hands, turning it back counterclockwise. As he did, he looked up, seeing his friends being easily and brutally mauled right before his eyes. Now there wasn’t any choice even if they did change their minds, that was definite. They didn’t take their chance. This was a thing now. This was going to be a thing._

_In horror he watched as Mark was tossed across the room, away from Cry, and landed with a sickening thud, as the masked man’s neck was snapped and his body dropped unceremoniously onto the floorboards. As Felix was bashed into the wall several times until he stopped moving, as Ken’s head was ripped from his shoulders, as Tyler’s spine was snapped like a twig._

_And it was at that point that the monster turned its attention him, starting to approach him._

_Ethan resisted all instinct to grab his usual book, to cast a spell as he backed closer and closer to Jack, finger finally reaching the twelve position again-_

_And that was when Ryuzuu took another step but it was slowed like walking through molasses, then another that stopped partway. Noticing a blue glow out of the corner of his eye, Ethan looked down at the floor beneath them, seeing a large intricate circle had appeared that resembled a clock, one that was rapidly ticking backwards through the seconds and minutes and hours. The hands on the clock seemed to be spinning faster and faster, driving a gathering, thickening blue mist from seemingly nowhere into a rapid, howling current around them._

_And soon there wasn’t much he could see beyond the outer edges of the circle. Nothing to prove that he did right, that it was even working-_

_Except Jack._

_Jack who lay within the circle only a couple feet from him, wounds gradually healing, sealing up._

_Jack who awoke, slowly moving to his feet, staring at him and whispering something, but his words were lost in the roar._

_But his lips and broken, horrified expression seemed to say it all._

_‘What have you done?’_

_For a brief, flickering moment though, Ethan felt a spark of selfish hope in his chest. Maybe Jack would remember after all, maybe it wouldn’t just be him. If they both remembered in a single loop, maybe their odds would be better at keeping everyone away from this place to begin with-_

_And that was when Jack’s horror increased, now mingled with alarm as he reached out to try and grab him but to no avail, a scream issuing out that was lost. That was when hands suddenly reached out of the void behind Ethan and dragged him back, the book slipping from his grip and landing at Jack’s feet. All he caught was a flash of green and pain as the knife plunged into his neck-_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Ethan might've done a thing. Sorry for the lateness guys, but I make it up to you with yet another mystery solved and a chapter that's somewhat longer than normal! In the meantime, thanks so much of the support; really helps with writing and posting. Keep theorizing, really helps with pacing! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	41. Chapter 40

“No good,” Tyler noted with a frown as he straightened a bit to peer through the misty darkness at the others.

“Huh...okay. So maybe we don’t quite got this,” Cry noted, the disappointed frown evident in his voice. “Yet. But we will-we just need an extra person or so.”

“I really thought we had it that time,” Matthew sighed, dragging his hand back through his hair as he glanced back at the door that led into the room, seeing Jack start through it again. After a moment, he shook his head. “Honestly I’m willing to give it at least one more try. Jack?”

“I mean-we can but this particular puzzle goes pretty fast. Even I’m having trouble just making it back and forth,” Jack confessed.

“Well yeah, I know, but our last try really was pretty close. I’m kinda thinking that since we know the pattern pretty well by now, maybe if Tyler or I were to try with two levers at once-at least while you were in the room with a switch-maybe we stand a better chance at getting all of the combination matched in time?” Matthew suggested.

“Not a bad idea,” Cry agreed. He paused. “Uh, unless it’s kinda like a classic video game where everyone has to stay in the same spot because video game logic.”

Jack made a face. “I don’t think it is. But I mean we can try it, sure. Can’t hurt to give it a shot at least once.”

“Once more and then we’ll try and think of an alternative way of getting that door open-or head on out to find the others. We’ve kinda wasted enough time down here regardless, I think.”

Jack eyed them for a moment before he shook he shrugged. “Ohhh- Yeah. Okay. Let’s do this,” he relented, heading back into the other room. There was a pause for a moment as the others readied themselves as well, each grabbing the levers. The silence was punctuated by a call that was somewhat muted by the caution of circumstance. “Ready?”

Matthew cast a look around the group before his eyes fell on Tyler. “Who’s sharing a lever with Jack? Me or you?”

“I’ll give it a try,” Tyler volunteered. “This room isn’t  _ that _ big. How hard can it be?”

“Yeah, well let’s not jinx it, dude,” Cry murmured.

Matthew nodded, calling back over to Jack, “Ready!”

“Pulling the lever in three...two…”

A sound suddenly came from the switch, then the lever closest to the door, followed rapidly by noises from each of the other switches, jumping back and forth amongst them and then occasionally distant, coming from the switch where Jack was-sounds that sounded almost like ticking, like that of a giant clock. One automatic playthrough for the sake of knowledge and memory. By the time the tune was tapering off to give them a turn, Jack was already at the lever closest to the door, hand grasping it and giving it three yanks back and forth before bolting back to the switch room. Two pulls by Cry, one by Matthew, four by Tyler and a switch flip by Jack-by that point Tyler was already bolting to Jack’s lever, giving it two quick pulls before turning to bolt back to his own. As he did, his katana caught on Jack’s lever in the darkness, caused him to stumble and flip the lever with his weight and momentum before steadying himself enough again to run back to his own lever and flip it twice.

“I think I may have already fucked it up,” he called over in confession.

“Maybe not, we’re just a few more notes. Just keep going,” Matthew encouraged as he gave his own lever three pulls and Cry did another with his. Jack flipped the switch twice, bolted back, one more lever-throw by Cry and another by Jack and-shit it was gonna be one lever-throw short on his end after all-

Suddenly a low scraping sound was heard behind Tyler, catching everyone’s attention as the flawed pattern was complete. Tyler was on the left side of the room though, total opposite of the door they were trying to open, what the fuck-

Cry was the first one to break the silence.

“Oh. Um,” he noted quietly as he moved from his lever to join Tyler with Jack and Matthew, shining his flashlight in the direction of the sound. “What was that?”

Jack stared at the wall with eyes wide. “I have no fuckin’ idea. That’s never happened before,” he confessed as he took several tentative steps forward, toward the wall with a hand reaching out in front of him. Touching the cool stone wall, he let his palm against it go flat as he gave it more force to shove it, then added some of his body weight. “Ah-it gives but it’s heavy-” he remarked, Tyler and Matthew moving to help him as Cry shined his flashlight through the widening crack in the door warily.

“Oh, dude,” the masked man murmured.

“What? What do you see?” Tyler asked.

“I-not much yet but-here-” Cry moved to help the others with pushing the section of the wall in, which ultimately slid like a turnstile, like a secret entrance that would be hidden by a bookcase. When they finally got the entrance open, Cry shined his flashlight on the two newly-opened sections of entry separated by the pushed-in wall. “I swear this house is completely Scooby Doo sometimes,” he remarked.

Matthew stepped forward to shine his flashlight through the entranceway and pierce the dusty darkness, giving a cough at the small cloud that had risen up in consequence of their intrusive actions. The others followed behind him, their lights revealing tables with beakers and chemistry sets, various electronics and machines that ranged in age from to somewhat new to decades old or more, and tables that were strewn with various papers and books. Sigils were everywhere, drawn onto papers, carved into the floor, into walls, even into some of the tables. A large, thick, sturdy steel cage was off in the corner as well as chains and cuffs against the wall and a cell was off on the far end. Other sections of the wall were lined with bookcases crammed with old tomes, cabinets stocked with various jars of god only knew. Although there were old, large, half-melted candles here and there on the tables, a dingy old lamp hung above them. The air smelled of stale chemicals that caused Jack’s nose to wrinkle.

“What the fuck is this place…” he remarked in quiet shock, watching as Matthew finally broke away from their huddled group to cross the room partway and stop before one of the tables, shifting through the papers and books.

“There’s a lot of stuff written in various languages here,” he noted quietly. “Lot of...what is that, Latin?...particularly. Huh...”

He swept his flashlight over towards the center of the room where a giant intricate clock filled with various circles and sigils was drawn-with  _ what _ , they couldn’t exactly tell in this sort of darkness-but it was kind of faded and flaking and a rusted red-

Tyler was the one to voice what they were all thinking: “Oh no. Guys, is that  _ blood?” _

Cry stared at the sight for a while before letting out a weighted sigh. “Well. I wish we could say that was the most disturbing thing we’ve seen in this house, but…” He tentatively approached the circle, kneeling down next to it but daring not to touch it-not really wanting to, either. “I mean yeah, it kinda looks like it. It looks really, really old though-the outer circle seems to be pretty faded and flaked away, at least. No telling just how old or whose blood this could be though.” Casting his gaze at the size of the circle, he added, “Something tells me whoever’s blood this was probably isn’t around now though.”

“Why are some of the center designs in black?” Matthew questioned as he peered forward, deeper into the circle as he approached its edge as well. “The hands, too…”

“Maybe it’s not? Could’ve just been a thicker layer-” Although even Tyler didn’t seem too convinced by his own suggestion. He paused to unsheathe his katana and eye the blade with a slight frown before looking back up to the others. “Or it could actually be monster blood.”

“What?” Matthew asked, turning his flashlight to focus on the katana blade as he approached him.

“Yeah, take a look at this. I’m actually kinda surprised it didn’t click sooner,” Tyler remarked. Indeed, the blood on the blade of the katana was dark, so dark in fact it appeared black.

“So monster blood is black…” Matthew observed, filing the information away in the back of his mind. “So this clock was at least partly made by the blood of monsters?” Turning his flashlight back on the circle, he slowly walked around it, shining his flashlight on each of the roman numerals. “Hey, uh, guys? Is it just me or do some of these numbers look to be fresher than others? These don’t seem to be in monster blood either, this looks human…”

“Why is it only numbers one through five?” Tyler asked, glancing up at the others.

“...Oh. Uh.” Cry studied the clock for a long moment before looking up at the others, then casting his flashlight beam around the room again. “Maybe we interrupted something. I don’t really see anyone else or anything else around here though, unless there’s another secret room somewhere.”

“I mean, it’s totally possible,” Matthew pointed out, turning around to shine his flashlight back down on a table full of books and papers to examine. “That or maybe there’s some sort of passageway to connect this place to the basement.”

“It really wouldn’t surprise me,” Cry sighed. Slowly walking more paces around the edge of the clock, he frowned behind the mask before his eyes flickered up to Jack, who was mostly silent. “You doin’ alright, Jack?” he questioned, to which Jack blinked and looked up at him.

“What? Oh-yeah.” Jack dragged a hand down his face before shaking his head. “I just-I didn’t even know this place was here, even after all the time I’ve spent in this house. It just got me wondering what  _ else _ don’t we know about this place? And if there’s rooms we haven’t even uncovered yet...I mean, what if the main key is hidden away in one of those?”

“Just means we need to check this place even more thoroughly,” Matthew pointed out, moving to open one of the cabinets of herbs, chemicals and whatever else the various bottles and containers inside held. As he began checking those and Tyler began shuffling through some of the papers on one of the tables, Cry sidled up next to Jack, who continued to stare down at the clock on the floor.

“Is that the only thing that’s bugging you?” Cry asked softly, eyes remaining focused on the drawing, keeping the conversation between the two of them for now. “Because it’s not the only thing bugging me.”

Jack instinctively hesitated before speaking. “Cry, this clock design… It looks like-” He paused once, almost uncertain before continuing. “It looks a whole lot fuckin’ lot like the clock in the book. Not to mention the clock that appears on the floor when I restart the loop.”

“Yeah, okay, that’s what I thought too,” Cry murmured. “That it matched the one in the book, at least.”

“Maybe this is where the book was made?” Jack wondered. “Anti said it was ‘modified with a combination of magic and science’, after all.”

“Or maybe it’s tied with whatever time reversals are going on now,” Cry noted.

“Maybe, but what could each of the fresh numbers mean?” Jack murmured with a frown. “Loops? Couldn’t be because there have been  _ way _ more than just five of them.”

“I-huh. So much of this seems to be tied in with numbers and clocks either way though, doesn’t it?” Cry sighed, absently fiddling with one of the drawstrings of his hoodie. “Kinda seems to be a recurring motif overall…” He glanced back at the tables. “We can check the tables. Maybe we’ll find something useful in terms of getting out of this place. Or at the very least, what might be happening to you-happening to  _ us. _ ”

Jack straightened for a moment, shifted, then turned to look at Cry. “And what...what’s going on with you?” he asked, for a second sounding a little more hoarse and unnerved than he particularly cared to.

Cry frowned at him from behind the mask, but figured he’d go ahead and say-after all, if it reestablished more of a baseline of trust, gave Jack something he could possibly more so relate to…

“I dunno man, just-like more so what I told you back in the safe room: every time I use the book, it feels like there’s just something chipping away at my brain. And that’s  _ just _ from healing alone. You’ve felt it too though-right? It can’t just be me. And you’ve used it so much more...”

For a long moment, Jack was silent as he crossed his arms over his chest, book tucked underneath them as he stared down at the clock on the floor with a frown on his face. Finally he replied quietly, “I’m sorry, Cry. You shouldn’t have to feel any of that.”

“Sorry for what? That I’ve had to save your ass just a few times? From injury?” Cry hesitated before reaching out to put a hand on Jack’s shoulder reassuringly. “Dude. C’mon. You’ve done more for me way more times. That actually goes for all of us. And I mean, let’s be realistic for a minute: as many loops as you’ve done, as much as you’ve put yourself out there, you’re not perfect. This isn’t something you can do without relying on other people every once and awhile. You’re going to get hurt. Sometimes more than even you yourself can handle.”

Letting his hand slip away from the Irishman’s shoulder, he added after a pause, “I just wish you’d be more upfront with us. Let us know what the heck’s going on with you...what to expect...and when to actually ask for help.” Giving Jack a look that was unseen due to the mask, he added, “But all the secrecy and shit aside, you have nothing to be sorry for and you need to accept that at some point. You’re being way too hard on yourself-and I guess I can see why, but-”

After all, Jack was the only one who triggered all the restarts, he was the one that could remember them all. Cry could see how that would start to build up, how various mistakes could torment and start bearing down upon a person, how it could begin to form this sort of mentality-and surely Anti knew that too, the sadistic son of a bitch. So Cry finally shrugged, only somewhat helplessly.

“Honestly I feel like your current way of thinking is only gonna be more harmful than good,” Cry finally confessed. Looking back at Jack and meeting his eyes (unseen or not), he added, “After all, we don’t even know the kind of toll this book is taking on you...or even what Anti’s end goal is. If you keep to this path then it’s only a matter of time before something  _ really _ shitty happens: like you getting killed or worse. It’s impressive that you’ve managed to dodge any of that so far or that we’ve been able to help you scrape by long enough to do a rewind, whether you’ve told us everything or not. I’m betting not. You’re lucky you haven’t gotten yourself  _ killed. _ But I feel like that’s not gonna be the case forever, especially if we’re not careful. You’ve been there for all of us so much already-now let us be there for you. For once?”

But then he released a sigh as he noticed Jack had dropped his eyes again, adding, “But. Shit. I don’t manage to push, man, just…” He shook his head, suddenly feeling awkward-but Jack finally took his turn to speak.

“Cry?” The Irishman looked back up at him with worn eyes-but they were actually making a weak attempt to smile, to recapture some of that old energy he was known for. “Thank you. Seriously. I’m gonna…” He sucked in a deep breath. “I’m gonna try being better on that front. It’s way past time that I stop getting all mopey about things…” Letting out a light, weary chuckle, he added, “Stay positive. Right?”

At this, Cry brightened, a spark of hope flickering in his chest. This was the Jack they all knew. “Stay positive and come to us when you’re having trouble feeling it, yeah. Lean on us when you need to.”

Jack nodded, the small smile remaining on his face. “You know, honestly, I did the first few loops with way more confidence…and trust,” he confessed. “I got a decent way through them before having to reset.”

“Yeah, well I imagine both of those are pretty important to make it through all of this. I’ll bet the main reason you didn’t make it those times was because you didn’t have all the information and you didn’t know this house quite as well. But you do now-or at least now you know more than what you started with,” Cry pointed out. “If you can bring all that together into the perfect storm? I  _ know _ you’ll have a better shot at getting everyone out of here alive than any attempt before now.”

“And if not, I mean...I guess I could always rewind. Again. Why not?” Jack grimaced a bit at the thought in spite of his words, but then added, “But if I have to start another loop, I’ll try to do things differently again. Something involving trusting ye guys...being more up front with ye all.”

“We should work on a contingency plan,” Cry offered. “Later, maybe when we’re all back together. I mean, obviously we’re gonna try as hard as possible to get outta here in this loop, but it’s always good to have backup. If we all put our heads together, then maybe we can figure out a way for you to convince everyone to avoid coming here in the first place. There’s only so much you can do on your own, after all.”

Jack brightened a bit more at this. “That would actually help out a lot, yeah,” he admitted. “It’s not something I’ve attempted nearly enough, not after several fails...but mentioning it, maybe if I did have a bit more information when trying, something that would make everyone believe me...or at least think twice about entering here…”

Cry grinned a bit wider. “See? Working together for only a few short hours and already we might stand a better chance-if not in this loop then maybe the next.” Thinking for a moment, he added, “And if all else fails, I feel like if you can start off with at least one person believing you, that already helps you out a lot. Uh…” He thought for a moment before adding, “I’ll have to think of something you can use to convince me with. Real name and shit isn’t bad but I feel like that’s not quite obscure enough.” He nodded. “I’ll think of something and get back to you on that.”

“Thanks, Cry.” Jack held his smile before looking over at the other two, pulling himself away from the clock to head over and poke around the tables and whatnot himself. “You guys find anything yet?”

“Chemicals, metals...papers and books with various formulas,” Matthew offered.

“Some sketches of clocks with various sigils,” Tyler added, looking up at them with a few papers in his hands. “Notes written in various languages-uh-” He held up a few of the papers, adding, “Looks like a name might be appearing in some of the pages? Pretty consistently. But I can’t really understand the language it’s written in, just that it keeps popping up pretty frequently-” He shook his head. “It’s definitely not a language that’s been offered at any of the schools I’ve been to though, at any rate.”

“Let me see?” Jack requested, holding his hand out to take the pages from Tyler. Squinting at them in the darkness as the others crowded around, his eyes suddenly widened a bit. “Oh! They’re in Irish-” He paused, then added, “ _ Fuck _ , my Irish  _ sucks _ . Uh-” He frowned as his eyes skimmed the pages. “It keeps mentioning something about a brother. And the name is...Stiana, yeah? Ugh, I’m almost positive that’s an Irish adaptation of an English name but…” He shook his head. “It’s not really coming to mind right now but I’ll think on it.”

“So...maybe Anti has a brother,” Matthew pointed out. “So I guess now we kinda know a little something about him? Whatever good that does us.”

“Well it’s sure to tie in somehow,” Tyler pointed out. “I mean, it was worth entering into his notes. Is that all it really talks about? Just a brother?”

“Well...no, just-again, my Irish is terrible,” Jack confessed. “Something about experiments maybe? I don’t really...hm…” He shook his head. “We can go over this in the safe room, back when we’re reunited with everyone. This doesn’t seem like the most optimal time to work on translations and if it’s all the same to ye bys, I’d like to get a quick headcount and make sure that everyone’s still alive.”

Cry nodded. “Now that we can do,” he agreed. His eyes sweeping the room as they followed the flashlight beam, he added, “Um...alright, so if all potential spots for where a key might be have been checked, I guess let’s gather up whatever might look useful and head back upstairs. And hopefully we’ll bump into Felix and co. on the way.”

“Or they’ll already be in the saferoom,” Tyler agreed hopefully as he moved to grab some more pages and Matthew grabbed a book. A few more things gathered up and the group was headed back out of the room, up the ladder, up into the back rooms again and then into the main area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I am so sorry for a lack of posting in...well pretty much ever. I could give a bunch of excuses but there is no excuse. All I can say is that I'm finally more or less up to speed on my writing, at least for a little while, and although my posting schedule might not be as tight and frequent as it was, I'm gonna make an effort to get up a chapter at least once every couple of weeks or so. And I know this chapter is a little bit short but it seemed like a good stopping off point and better something than nothing, right? But in the meantime, thank you so much for sticking around, commenting, kudo'ing-if not for that, I'm not sure I would've gotten the muse and determination to finish this thing rekindled. But I'm pretty sure I've got things down again so buckle in and let's power through the rest of this adventure together. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	42. Chapter 41

“The noise was coming from down here…” Stephanie murmured as she looked around.

“Well we’re not seeing any blood or carnage yet, or at least not much of it.” Matthias winced a bit as he remembered the drops of blood they found at the foot of the stairs. “I think we can take that as a good thing.” His eyes swept the area, unable to keep the frown off his face in spite of his words of reassurance. Stupid. He was supposed to keep his family together. Now he was here, J-Fred was upstairs and Bryan-

He wasn’t even going to think about the possibilities right now. None aside from the hope that Bryan was still alive.

But one look at Stephanie told him that she was just as worried as he was. And why wouldn’t she be? Her husband was also one of those now missing, along with a bunch of their other friends. Maybe there was more safety in a group of four but judging from that crash they heard coming from downstairs, whatever it was sounded  _ massive _ , and they already knew there was something strong enough to rip a door off its hinges. Stephanie had gotten a glimpse of the video when she was compiling together clues and catching up, back when she and Matthew were being filled in about what was going on.

He reminded her of the video before they set out as he’d considered maybe going with someone else, someone who was a bit less new to all of this and had explored more of the house.

She remained undeterred.

“We can,” Stephanie agreed as her eyes swept the area, the pair wandering about on the first floor. They’d already checked the kitchen/lounge area, the library, the bathroom-all the obvious places. “I hope. I’m sure they’re just hiding.”

“You think so?” Matthias asked, glancing over at her as they made it back to the entrance hall.

“Hopefully. I mean-four people against a monster that could make as much noise as we were hearing?” Stephanie frowned and shook her head as they cautiously swept beams from the flashlights on their phone around the area. “I like to think they’d be smart enough to hide instead of sticking around to fight. Unless...unless they weren’t able to get away fast enough.” As her expression became more worried and betrayed her attempted optimism, Matthias gave her a sympathetic look.

“Yeah, well...if the thing is too big, I imagine it wouldn’t be able to follow very easily. In a big hall like this-maybe. But a lot of the doors and hallways in this place are pretty small-especially those narrow corridors some of the rooms will have. So if it came down to a chase, I’m sure they would’ve been able to get away.”

Or at least, that’s what he was hoping. That’s what he was going to tell himself for the time being. And he wasn’t even going to consider the idea of the missing people being chased down by the monsters that were faster and smaller. He truly hoped they’d managed to get to a place of hiding and safety.

He shook his head. “Anyway, I’m sure we’re in the right area at this point. I mean, the noises definitely didn’t sound like they came from upstairs, so it’s gotta be either the first floor or the second. We haven’t checked out the back rooms or the basement yet, so I guess that should probably be next on our list.”

There was one thing to be thankful of, at least: they hadn’t run across any monsters. Yet, anyway. But they both knew that their odds were probably...really pretty terrible if they did. Initially Stephanie had only part of a broken sword they’d found in the safe room-she’d traded it out for a knife when they explored the kitchen, however. He only had an axe. Even though it was better than nothing if it came down to a fight, they  _ really _ needed to find better weaponry than this-or at least something with more range.

Ugh, he was beginning to regret giving their gun over to Ken. He was also starting to wish they’d brought along Ethan.

Well, too late for that now. If nothing else, hopefully Ethan would be successful in getting some answers with what he was doing. Hopefully they’d know more about the situation and be able to prepare better once they regrouped.

“So...bathroom?”

Stephanie shrugged. “Worth taking a look, I guess,” she agreed as they moved to head down the corridor leading to it.

A few steps from exiting the entrance hall fully, they suddenly heard a door open behind them, freezing before turning to look behind them. As they did, Stephanie’s eyes brightened. “Matthew!” she exclaimed, hurrying forward to run into Matthew’s arms. “We were so worried-we’re  _ still _ worried, actually-” Her eyes flickered across the group in doing a quick headcount. “What happened to everybody else?”

“The group got split up-” Matthew explained, blinking a few times with wide eyes before he glanced over at Matthias over Stephanie’s shoulder. “What are you guys doing down here? Where’s Joey and Ethan?”

“We heard crashes coming from down here-and then you guys started taking a really long time to get back-” Stephanie began in a rush.

“Joey and Ethan are up in the safe room-” Matthias added before looking around, his wide-eyed expression and tone growing grim. “Do you have any idea where the others went off to?”

“They went down into the basement,” Jack explained. “They were all fine last we saw them, just...that was a while ago.” He winced slightly before continuing. “We were actually just about to go look for them. Guess that answers our question that they haven’t made it to the safe room yet.”

Matthias shook his head. “No, pretty sure they haven’t yet. Unless it was maybe during the point we were in the kitchen or something-” He sighed. “We really need working phones at a time like this. Or walkie-talkies or something.”

Tyler nodded. “It’d be nice, but…” He looked up the stairs. “I guess it is possible they already slipped by and made it to the safe room, and we actually have some things to drop off-”

“Oh yeah, what’d you guys find?” Stephanie asked curiously, tilting her head to try and get a good look at the things in their arms and hands.

“A lot of crazy shit,” Cry replied. “We’ll give a full report once everyone’s grouped back together.”

“So maybe we should head back up to the safe room, check to see if the others have returned-if they haven’t we can at least drop all this stuff off by the room and reduce the size of our group a little bit-all these people together are bound to draw a bunch of attention,” Tyler suggested.

Matthias hesitated, glancing back to let his eyes linger for a moment on the corridor they were about to head down before finally he nodded, although a frown remained settled on his face. “Alright. Yeah-okay. Let’s just hurry, alright?”

Jack nodded, a worried frown on his face as well. “Right,” he agreed, the group all moving to head up the stairs and back to the safe room.

“So no luck so far with getting back the power either, huh?” Stephanie asked as they trekked.

Matthew shook his head. “Not that we’ve seen yet, no,” he confessed. “But I’m telling you, Steph-some of the things we  _ did _ find so far…” He slowly let out a deep breath before continuing, “Well, you’ll see. Maybe. We actually do need an extra person down there with us to help open up an area.”

“Oh. Oh yeah, I could totally help out with that,” Stephanie agreed as the group one by one climbed up into the armoire and headed up the stairs.

“Anything new happen on your end?” Matthew asked as they waited for the trapdoor, then as each began to head up through it once it opened.

“I-maybe?” Stephanie began. She shrugged. “I think so, but you’ll see. Probably sooner than later, I’m thinking.”

As everyone made their way up into the safe room, they were greeted by J-Fred and Ethan, but the reunion was bittersweet. Although relief filled the air that both parties were still alright, it was tainted by the disappointment that the others had yet to show. Both groups proceeded to give updates and share information while setting the newly-found potential clues on the table with all the other books and whatnot-although they kept it brief and abridged yet tantalizing enough to stress the importance for full info later on, anxious to return to their hunt for the others. No time to waste and all seemed to be in preference of doing a full info-share once instead of twice.

“Okay, right, so…” Matthias sighed, looking around at everyone. “We’ll need a new group to head downstairs, preferably one that’s smaller than six people. I’m up for going-anyone else?”

“I think it’s about time I got back out there,” Ethan volunteered, moving to his feet.

Jack cast a frown at the blunette but then nodded. “I’ll head back out with ye guys then-”

As he spoke, a knock suddenly rapped against the trap door, drawing all eyes towards it, the room falling silent. There was another knock against the trap door, which now could be identified as a pattern.

“That’s the secret knock,” Matthew identified quietly.

“Thank god,” Tyler muttered, heading over and reaching down to crack it open cautiously before pulling it up and back all the way. First Mark, then Ken, then Bryan and Felix-Bryan nursing his arm that was twisted at an odd angle, Mark with a small cut above his eyebrow.

“Holy-guys, what happened?” Matthias asked as he ushered the group inside to let Tyler close the door behind them. As the four headed over to settle down at the table, he moved to check the injured.

“We ran into Steve down in the basement,” Mark explained with a grimace. “Everyone got out alive but...you know…” He gestured to Bryan and then his own head before continuing, “Not without injuries.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Matthias agreed, making a face at Bryan’s arm. “I think it might be broken-”

“Yeah, don’t even worry about it, I got this,” Jack assured as he cast a healing bubble with the book and brought it over to the group.

“At least Ryuzuu couldn’t make it down into the basement after us,” Felix noted. “At least, not the way we took, anyway.”

“Yeah, it seemed too big for the stairs. Dunno if there’s another way down there but…” Ken agreed.

“We did get a look at the tunnel exit though,” Mark pointed out. “It actually does look possible if we could just figure out a way up there.”

“Kind of a shame no one in the group is a parkour master-” Bryan began before hissing in pain and gritting his teeth as a few sudden cracks and crunches were heard from his arm, squeezing his eyes shut and letting out a grunt as the appendage twitched and twisted.

“We might’ve found some stuff too,” Matthew seconded, looking around. “So Jack showed us the annex-it’s through a trap door in the back rooms downstairs. Most of it looks pretty empty but there’s some Simon Says mini-game to get into a locked room we might need opening. While we didn’t manage to get in there, we somehow managed to accidentally open a secret door to a room even Jack didn’t know about? Because even real life has video game-type secrets, apparently. At least in this house.” He gestured to the papers and books and whatnot on the table. “It looked like some kind of crazy mad scientist lab, guys. Giant cage, beakers, creepy blood drawings on the floor, everything.”

“Creepy blood drawings on the floor?” Ethan repeated, making a face.

“Such as?” Mark pressed, frowning.

“Looked something like a clock? Which seems to be the common motif in this place, but…” Tyler replied, to which Cry nodded.

“But it’s probably somehow linked to the book and everything going on,” Cry finished. “Not all the numbers were filled in but it was definitely a clock. And think about it-we have to break alarm clocks to regain memories of past loops; there’s clocks in the book, in the healing spell-”

“In the looping spell,” Ethan added quietly, to which all eyes swivelled on him. Jack’s wide blue eyes in particular stared at him.

“How do you know what the looping spell looks like?” he asked quietly.

Ethan frowned. “Because I remembered why Anti is pissed at me. I remembered how I’m connected-” He shook his head. “Jack, you died. We came so close to getting out of this place but then you ended up getting killed saving Mark and-" He bit his lip before continuing. "You asked not to be resurrected, for all of us to just take the key and run. It's just as Anti told it: we didn't respect your wishes. Instead I was the one to rewind time instead of you."

He paused as he gathered and sorted his thoughts before continuing, allowing this newfound revelation to sink in with everyone in the process. "We had hoped that you'd get a break at least, that maybe you wouldn't remember once we restarted the loop-just like everybody else. But then Anti's monsters came in. Just about everyone died protecting me while I figured out and cast the spell. The only ones I'm not sure of is Team Edge because they went off to hide the main key-we thought they'd be back in time to let us know where they decided on-"

He shook his head. "I remember...you got resurrected in the middle of the spell. You were in the circle with me. You woke up, you seemed to know what was going on-" Unable to suppress the slight shudder that crept through his body, he continued, "And then something grabbed me from behind, pulled me back into the void. I think stabbed me through the neck. I dropped the book at that point...in the...circle..."

At this point his face was clouded by his frown as he recounted his story, to which everyone stared at him before slowly pulling their gaze only for it to settle on Jack.

It was finally Cry who spoke in realization. "Oh-shit-okay. So I have no idea if this is accurate but maybe it's a thing of-if you start a spell to reverse the loop, you gotta be there for the entire thing. If it's anything like the healing spell, it requires focus? Is that right?"

Jack hesitated, then nodded. "I...I guess so?" he replied.

"So Ethan  _ started _ the loop. Got killed. Jack picked up the book and  _ finished _ it. You think the book is confused with ownership between  _ me and Jack? _ And maybe that's why memories are getting all wonky when the two of us are in the same room whenever we break a clock?" He paused for a moment before adding, "That's a thing by the way, we figured that out before we went down into the basement. Apparently when Jack and I are in the same room when we break a clock, his memories get reflected onto me-" He shook his head, clearing his throat to continue. "Anyway. All I've done with the book is  _ healed _ people. Imagine how it must be if you've used it to trigger a rewind spell."

His eyes settled on Ethan. "It's no wonder you're not even getting any memories. Jack doesn't get memories whenever a clock's broken because he retains all of them...doesn't he?" A glimpse to check Jack's nod and he continued, "But you don't. The book doesn't seem to  _ realize _ that, it thinks you're Jack." Pausing as he ran all this over in his head to ensure it all made sense before continuing, he added, "And it’s no wonder Jack doesn't remember this particular loop, because technically he was dead-the spell must've gotten all muddled, maybe his memories of that loop got more or less cleared before he woke up because Ethan was technically supposed to remember it-"

"Magic is weird," Tyler sighed.

"Yeah it is. And I’m betting this all happened on that one particular loop you started losing count, isn’t it?” Cry questioned, his gaze drifting back to Jack.

“He did mention it was loop fifty-seven before he died,” Ethan noted softly. “From what I can remember.”

“This place. It really is all about numbers,” Cry noted. “I wonder if we’ve ever managed to find the main key after that loop.”

Jack shook his head. “Not really,” he confessed. “I always thought it was from Anti hiding it-” He glanced over at Matthias, J-Fred and Bryan. “And maybe that’s still the case. But maybe it was because someone else did, somebody unexpected. I’m sure at this point it could go either way.”

“Matthias, do you have any idea where you guys would maybe hide the key if you got the chance to?” Felix asked.

Matthias’s eyes widened a bit, spotlight now suddenly on him. “I…” He began, but then he shook his head. “Not off the top of my head, I don’t think? But I mean-we haven’t even seen all of the house at this point. At the moment there’s really no way to really be sure.”

“Which at the moment brings us back to square one,” Tyler sighed. Looking over at Jack, he asked, “Jack, how many rooms are in this place that we haven’t checked out yet?”

“There’s another library upstairs,” Jack listed. “The locked room down in the annex. The pantry downstairs-”

“Oh, no, we got that one,” Matthew assured. “We’re actually on the lookout for the code that goes to the safe in there, if it’s even worth checking out.”

“Probably wouldn’t hurt,” Jack replied. “Alright then, so excluding that one...there’s also the top floor. It’s got three rooms-but normally once you get past the first room, the other two don’t have a lock between them. I don’t think we’ll need to expect finding a key or a code for those rooms.”

“Alright, so that kinda helps us with building a game plan. Right?” Matthew asked, looking around at everyone.

Mark nodded. "Jack, are there maybe any puzzles that we've maybe missed that could get us access to any of these rooms? Maybe there's another mini game that could get us a code or a key...or even an unlocked door outright?"

"We've still got the one to finish downstairs," Cry pointed out. "It's easy enough, we just need one or two extra people."

"There's occasionally the piano," Jack pointed out. "Sometimes there's a puzzle involving the cells...I don't really think this time around though?"

"I don't think any of us have really gotten a very good look at the piano," Felix pointed out, unable to resist making a slight face as the memory of falling through the hole and injuring his back flashing through his mind. "Or even the room it's in, for that matter. We could give that a try."

"Considering that's on the same floor as the upstairs library, that's actually not a terrible idea," Jack agreed.

"Wait, we still need a key though, don't we? For the upstairs library?" Stephanie asked, to which Tyler held up a key.

"Found this in the pantry," he remarked. "Still haven't found what it goes to yet."

"How much you wanna bet that’s the one you need?" Ken noted, a small grin of hope flickering across his features.

"Only so many doors that are actually missing keys at this point, considering all the ones we’ve collected already," J-Fred noted. "Let’s just hope this is actually one to a locked door."

"Right, so we need a group for the piano room and a group for the library," Felix suggested, looking around the room.

"Four for one, four for the other?" Mark suggested. "We still have that downstairs area to check out."

"Might be better to keep everyone on the same level at a time," Tyler pointed out. "Less chance for everyone to get scattered again."

"I'll head a group to the piano room," Jack suggested. "Considering the puzzle is likely going to require fiddling around on the piano and even though I  _ suck _ with piano..." He shrugged. "I mean, I still have at least a little bit of experience."

“Too bad it’s not drums, huh?” Mark muttered, to which Jack gave a faint, tiny grin.

"I'll hit that room up too," Matthew volunteered. Glancing over at Stephanie, he hesitated before asking, "Steph-?"

"I know what you're thinking. Don't worry. I'll check out the other room," Stephanie volunteered with a nod.

"Seriously, what are you two even working on?" Mark wondered, giving them a questioning look.

"Theories," Matthew replied vaguely. "Always theories. We’re gonna need two more for our group."

"Uh-I'll go," Matthias volunteered.

"Same," J-Fred agreed, to which Matthias almost winced.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Bryan should take five after breaking his arm," J-Fred pointed out. "I know it's fixed now, but-"

"Yeah, no, I'm fine with taking five, don't worry," Bryan replied, rubbing his newly-healed arm with a slight wince as he remembered the pain nonetheless. "One broken limb is enough for the hour. You kids have fun."

"I'm in for a group this time," Ethan pointed out. "Now that we have a better idea as to what all is going on, I'm still  _ pretty sure _ the book I'm using is okay."

"Except for spells that blow you up..." Cry muttered.

"Woah, hold on a minute, 'blow you up'?" Mark repeated in alarm, to which Jack winced slightly.

"I'll point the spell out to him, let him know it's not an okay one to use," Jack offered, moving to Ethan's side as the blunette opened the book, allowing the Irishman to flip through the pages. As an afterthought, he grumbled, "Actually, I should probably just mark that damned spell out outright..."

"Uh-regardless, I'm with Felix and Steph," Ethan volunteered.

Mark seemed undeterred in his protectiveness. "Then I'm with you guys," he offered. "Guess that completes that group."

Cry looked around at the group, then down at the books and papers scattered all over the table, then back up at the group again. "I guess we'll man the fort from here," he offered. "Is there anything we should maybe be looking for, at least?" Turning his gaze pointedly on the Patricks, he continued, "Anything we can maybe help with?"

"Actually, if you could maybe start skimming the papers and books we found for names?" Matthew suggested. "Or anything that even looks like a name. That's-it's a whole other theory but we think it might end up paying off in the long run in helping us figure out ultimately what exactly is going on."

“Good enough. I think I can do that,” Cry replied, heading over to the main table and plopping down, casting them all a look. “Everyone get back safe. Don’t make me come after you. Or reboot time.”

“Believe me, we’re definitely gonna try,” Mark assured. “Everyone else in here-Bryan, Tyler, Ken-?”

“We’ll give Cry a hand, yeah,” Tyler reassured with a nod.

“Well I was gonna say ‘take five’, but…” Mark shrugged.

“That too,” Bryan replied with a small grin before looking over at his brothers-in-law in particular, watching as J-Fred got the gun from Ken. “You guys be careful, too.”

“We will, we will,” Matthias assured.

“Keep an eye on this place, too,” Felix seconded.

“Yeah. No opening doors unless it’s to the secret knock,” Tyler replied. “We got it.”

“Alright,” Jack said as he headed over to the trap door, looking back at everyone. “Everyone stay safe and...we’ll try and make it back as quickly as possible. Hopefully with some results.” With that said, he pulled the trap door open and climbed down through, followed one by one by the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Chapter's a bit late but even late is probably better than never, right? I'll try getting the next chapter out a bit quicker. Thanks so much for all the comments, kudos and support! Really helps with getting this stuff written and posted. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	43. Chapter 42

All was clear as they entered the room and filed out into the corridor. No noise and-as multiple sweeps with the flashlights proved-nobody in the area. It was an eerie feeling as they headed deeper into the house, knowing just how infested this house was with life and yet not detecting a single sign of it. The group remained silent themselves as they entered into the main hall of the second floor and then turned to head up the stairs, being as careful as possible to not give away their position with even a creaky step until they were (at least somewhat) secure behind a locked door. As they finally hit the third floor, Felix turned right, glancing back at the others for a key. Upon getting it from Stephanie he tested it out in the lock, heard the soft 'click' of success. Heading in with Stephanie, Mark and Ethan, Jack watched for a moment before making a silent gesture to the others to go on ahead into the piano room and holding up one finger in indication that he'd be joining them momentarily. As he followed the first group into the upstairs library, he closed the door behind him and stepped away from it a few paces.

"Ethan," he called over quietly.

"Huh?" Ethan turned to look back at him before making his way over. "What's up?"

"I still have to show you what spell  _ not _ to use," Jack replied, reaching Ethan's side and flipping through the book some. "It's uh-aboleo-"

"Aboleo?" Ethan repeated, blinking. "Okay. And what does that do exactly?"

"Worst case scenario? It blows you up," Jack warned. "Not always, but most of the time you use it-it's really  _ not worth the risk. _ I can't heal you from that when there isn’t even anything left of you, so..."

Ethan nodded. "Don't use aboleo. Got it." Making a face, he added, "Why would such a spell even be in this book anyway?"

Jack shook his head. "Kamikaze attack reserved for the worst case scenario, I guess," he suggested. "Anyway, I gotta get back to the other group, so..."

Ethan nodded. "Yeah. You guys be careful." Giving Jack a small grin, he added, “Make some music.”

“It’d be better if it were on drums.” Jack scoffed, unable to help the small smile that flitted across his face before his face settled back into a soft grim. "But yeah, ye all be careful, too.” With that final warning issued, he slipped out and heading across the hall to the piano room. Stepping inside and softly closing the door behind him before locking it, he then made his way over to the center of the room where the group was crowded around it.

"Does the piano always have stuff scratched into it?" Matthew finally asked, voicing the question that was on everybody's minds.

As Jack's eyes swept over the various words that were scrawled into the surface of the piano, he nodded. "Yeah, the scratchings always remain on the piano throughout every reversal. Just like most damage done to the house," he replied. "So one word for every loop."

"One for every-christ, Jack," Matthias whispered, shaking his head. "The piano's practically covered."

"Yeah, well..." Jack fell short and shook his head, deciding not to dwell on the number of loops he'd done thus far. At least now the mystery of the forgotten loop and loss of count was resolved. Clearing his throat to change the focus of the subject, he then said, "So the word that gets written is always a clue as to what helps us with getting a key." Making a face, he added, "And yeah, I know. It helps us with getting out, but Anti still does it because he seems to enjoy playing this game regardless...um..."

"So what's the word for this loop?" J-Fred asked. "Jack-if these words remain every loop, I think you’re gonna be the only one to remember what’s already been there and what’s new or not.”

Jack nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he assured as he began searching up and down along the piano. A few minutes of silence before he finally made a face. "Alright. One second..." Holding a hand out in request for a phone, he scooted underneath the piano to shine its flashlight up at the bottom. "Feckin'... _ ass _ ..." he muttered as his eyes skimmed along it. Close to the center he saw it, finally passing the phone back over to Matthew before pulling himself out from underneath. "New."

"What?" The others exchanged looks of confusion as Jack climbed to his feet and dusted himself off.

"The word is 'new'." Jack looked around at everyone. "Whatever that's supposed to mean."

"I guess...whatever's new about this loop?" Matthew suggested.

"There's several things that are new about this loop, according to what you guys have been finding," Matthias pointed out. "The basement tunnel, that...lab, uh-"

"MatPat and Steph," J-Fred pointed out, gesturing to Matthew. "I mean, if they haven't actually been here before? Plus if Anti was involved in any way with them coming here, that would actually be something new that was within his control and planning."

Matthew's face lit up. "That's true. We  _ haven't _ been here before. So then...okay. How exactly does the clue connect with this room?"

"Uh-well again, it all links back to the piano," Jack explained. "The word is supposed to clue us into a song or tune that might be related to it. The code is whatever the first four notes are by translating the notes into their place in the alphabet-" Noticing everyone's incredulous expressions, he made a face. "Yeah. I can't tell you  _ how long _ it took us all to actually figure it out. That was one of the things we needed the book's help from with an extra boost of Mark's dumb luck."

"Well I can't really think of any songs that would relate back to tunnels or labs..." Matthias pointed out, frowning. "Anyone else? Because if not-uh-gonna have to side with Joey here." At the silence that followed, he looked over at Matthew. "Matt? Got anything on your end?"

Matthew blinked, thinking it over for a moment before his face brightened a bit. "Science Blaster. Uh-the Game Theory theme?"

"I can probably work it out if you know how it goes," Jack offered, sitting down in the seat for a moment.

As the others gave him a curious look, Matthew asked, "You don't remember how the Game Theory theme goes?"

Jack made a face. "I mean- _ I do _ , just-I was hoping you might've known the first four notes to it for sure," he specified. "That way I can play them real quick so we can double-check."

"Oh. Uh-shoot-really depends on what part of Science Blaster you start it on. I guess with intro, safest bet is uh..." Matthew leaned back for a moment with a face etched in thought for a moment as he mulled it over, quietly muttering each beat to the song. "...A, A, G, G?"

"One, one, seven, seven?" J-Fred suggested as Jack keyed the notes, somewhat hesitant with the notes and muttering something about how piano could kiss his asshole. "Which door is this combination for again?"

"The safe in the pantry," Jack replied. After a pause, he added, "Usually. Anti will change it up sometimes but usually."

"It's a ways to go to check," Matthias remarked, making a face. Looking around at everyone else, he added, "But unless anyone else thinks of any other tune that could go to the clue 'new', especially anything that relates at all to our situation..."

J-Fred shook his head. "I've got nothing otherwise."

"We could go ahead and give it a shot then," Matthew suggested.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, nodding. "We should go let the others know though, just so they don't freak out when they check this room."

"Good idea. Communication seems to be one of the things we're all kinda lacking right now. We  _ really _ need to figure out how to get our phones back up and working at some point in this place," J-Fred agreed before the group silently headed out of the piano room and across the hall.

Giving four quick, sharp knocks on the door (trying to remain as quiet as possible throughout though), the door was answered by Felix, who peered out with a look of relief. "We never did actually decide on a code knock for our two groups, did we?" he noted as the second group flooded into the room and he shut the door behind them.

"We didn't. I think we can keep what we just used though. Uh-" Jack began, watching as Matthew headed over to Stephanie to exchange a few words. "So we think we might've figured out the combination."

"To which?"

"The safe downstairs in the pantry, most likely" Jack explained. "And we think it might actually be accurate, so we're planning to head down there now to check it out."

"You guys find anything on your end?" J-Fred asked as he looked around, to which Felix shook his head with a sigh.

"Nothing too much, no," he confessed. Casting a glance to the Patricks, he added, "And if we have, I don't really have a clue yet. But hey, if all's accurate, it's not like we have anymore keys to look for-right? Besides the main one? It’ll be mostly codes and clocks."

"That's what we're hoping, yeah," Matthias agreed. "Anyway, we'll check out the pantry and...you guys wanna just meet back up in the safe room afterward? Hopefully this is gonna work but if not, might be better if we all put our heads together to try and think up some other options."

"Uh-yeah, that sounds fine," Felix agreed with a nod. "We'll head on up there in just a bit ourselves."

"Cool. Stay safe guys." Glancing over at the Patricks, Matthias called over, "Hey, MatPat, you coming?"

"Ah-yeah, be right there," Matthew called back. Exchanging just a couple more words with Stephanie, he headed back over to the group, to which Matthias shook his head.

"You've really gotta tell us what you guys are working on, man."

"I think we're gonna, yeah. Soon. Just need to consult with Steph a bit more before we come to an actual conclusion." Matthew frowned slightly and made a point not to look at certain people as he added, "That and test one or two things out a bit."

Jack raised an eyebrow at the group but headed back over to the door, gesturing to it. "So...pantry?" he asked as he rested his hand on the knob.

Matthew nodded. "Pantry," he affirmed.

The group headed out and down one flight of stairs, then another. Finally making it to the first floor, they headed down the corridor to the kitchen in silence. Nobody spoke until they crossed the threshold to the kitchen, to which they shut and locked the door behind them.

"Not gonna lie, it's been  _ way _ too quiet ever since we all regrouped in the attic," J-Fred remarked as they headed over to the pantry. "To be honest, I'm kind of expecting hell to break loose at any second."

"Well hopefully that's not gonna jinx it..." Jack remarked as they crossed the room and filed into the pantry. "But you'd be right to be on your guard. I don't think I have to be the one to tell you that though."

"We've seriously been in this place long enough for 'cautious' to be the default," J-Fred agreed. "Or at least, it should be." He gave Jack a pointed look at these words, to which Jack winced slightly.

"Oh, c'mon now. I may still do what I have to do but at least now I'm trying harder to be more careful," Jack confessed. After a beat of hesitation, he added, "It is perhaps somewhat easier since communication has improved. Since...since we're all definitely working together now."

"Considering the situation, Jack, that's really about all we can ask," J-Fred agreed as Matthew shuffled to the front of the group to face the safe. "Okay, so...one, one, seven, seven-" He made a face, adding, "This would be a bit easier if we had an idea of how many times we needed to twist the dial and in what direction. Nobody would happen to have a stethoscope, would they?"

"Ah, it's-try one twist to the left, two to the right, four to the left then two to the right again," Jack advised as Matthew set about following his instructions. "The combination tends to change with every loop but the dial itself doesn't. The pattern is generally pretty set."

Matthew nodded, spinning the dial carefully as he breathed the instructions with each action.

"So just to be clear, this thing isn't booby-trapped or anything, right?" Matthias affirmed, to which Jack shook his head.

"What? No. The worst thing we can do with the safe is get it wrong, in which case we'll just have to figure out another combination," he reassured.

"...Which sucks in and of itself but okay," Matthias muttered, looking back at the safe when they suddenly heard a click. All faces lit up as Matthew pulled it open, glancing back at them before looking back in and pulling out a clock and a slip of paper.

"2013?" he read off, glancing over at the others.

“That’s gotta be the passcode to the top floor,” Jack noted, shifting a bit. “Let’s head back up. The others are gonna be waiting.”

The group made their way out of the pantry, across the kitchen/lounge area and pausing at the door, listening for a moment before unlocking it and peeking out with a single beam cast down the hall.

“Alright, looks clear,” Matthew noted in a borderline whisper. “At least as far as the light can reach, anyway.”

“Comforting,” Matthias muttered under his breath, adjusting his grip a little bit on the axe handle as they slipped out.

The group swiftly made their way down the hall, beams of light drifting around the area. It was just a few feet away from the staircase that they suddenly heard a creak, causing the group to freeze and Jack to immediately throw his arm out in front of the group to ensure their stop. Beams of light remained on the area right in front of and right next to the staircase, that corner that anything could be hiding behind-and sure enough, out stepped one of the monsters.

Philippe eyed them for a moment, silence and stillness from both parties for a few long seconds before suddenly Philippe let out a shrill whine.

"GO!" Jack exclaimed, ushering them back the way they came as the group broke into a run.

“Come  _ on _ , this one again?!” Matthew exclaimed as they bolted back down the corridor, only to have the door to the kitchen/lounge suddenly slam in their face and a maniacal laugh fill the narrow space.

“Fuck you, Anti!” Jack exclaimed, giving the knob a desperate tug before shaking his head. “Fuck! Locked!”

“Can’t get around this guy,” Matthias warned as he turned back around to face Philippe, the grip on his axe tightening further.

“Then we’re just going to have to go  _ through _ him,” J-Fred seconded as Jack quickly moved to check the library door, finding it locked as well. "Guys?!"

"Yeah!" Matthew whipped around, pipe at the ready. As Matthias readied himself with his axe and Jack flipped the book open in preparation, taking one of the phones with his free hand to provide light for the group, J-Fred took aim with his gun, moving to the front of the group.

Maybe all the commotion would draw the others.

Maybe they could get cavalry coming from the monster's other side.

Or maybe they wouldn't live through this battle at all-

...Maybe shoot for the more hopeful possibility.

J-Fred pulled the trigger, firing off one, two, three shots. Two shots missed the moving target, the other seemed to hit the monster between the ribs, eliciting a loud, ear-piercing shriek that caused the four to cringe. Another pull of the trigger-a hollow 'click'.

"Gotta reload!" J-Fred warned.

"And that's where we come in," Matthias muttered, moving forward now that they had the promise of not getting hit by friendly fire. "Tell us when you're ready!"

"Got it!" J-Fred replied, fumbling with the gun to reload as quickly as possible.

The creature was fast.

But the narrow corridor seemed to work somewhat to their advantage, giving it little room to dodge from the assault of an axe and a metal pipe-it certainly didn't appear to have any of the extreme agility that Abby had, nor the advantage of petiteness. As they got a few hits on the monster respectively, Matthias shot a glance over at Matthew, moving to slip around Philippe to get behind him, to perhaps get an axe attack in to the back.

As he skirted around, Philippe suddenly swiveled around to follow his movements, throwing a long, scythe-like claw forward and getting a stab into his stomach with such a force that Matthias jolted back, feeling the tip of the claw coming out the other end and pinning him to the wall. His eyes went wide, his breath a gasp that only created more pain throughout his body.

"Matthias!" Matthew exclaimed, beginning an unrelenting onslaught on the monster. "Let him go! Let 'im go!"

Hearing the commotion and a shouted 'NO' from Jack behind him, J-Fred's eyes shot up, wide upon seeing the situation before him. "Matthias!" he exclaimed, watching as the creature twisted around to take a swipe at Matthew, practically oozing annoyance. Matthew yelped, staggering back with a number of deep gouges trailing down his back, left shoulder and arm. J-Fred's eyes narrowed as he took a step forward, stopped to glance down for only a second to finish readying his gun, then moved forward at a swift pace. "You let my brother go NOW!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck-!" Jack cursed under his breath as he shoved the phone into his pocket and flicked the scab on his finger until it bled, pressing down to ensure it did before pressing it into the book and drawing the clock hands back in a counterclockwise motion. The green outline of the clock sparked to life under his hand, which he raised as the bubble expanded around it. Slamming the book shut with one hand, he looked up to see J-Fred take a few more shots at Philippe, now up close and getting a hit in on the chest, in the shoulder, one just grazing its head. The creature thrashed, throwing Matthias off his claws so the blond flew back limply into the darkness. With the weight now off its hand, it swiped at J-Fred with movements now more so wild like that of a panicked animal, but the pain was beginning to slow it down. Nevertheless it hit its target, sending J-Fred staggering to which it followed up with a powerful shove back.

But as it turned to face Jack, who froze for just a moment like a deer in the headlights with its eyes on him and its proximity so close, it suddenly stopped as well, lifting then tilting its head as if listening to something. It gave another building whine seeming to hesitate before looking back down at Jack, then whipping around to head off into the darkness, back off to elsewhere in the house.

In a surge of alarm Jack noticed it was in the same direction Matthias had been thrown in and took off racing after it-to try and protect Matthias to the best of his ability or to immediately start healing him up as he was currently in the worst shape, whatever the reason. Matthias was his immediate concern right now.

But no, Philippe disappeared off into the darkness, ignoring Jack, ignoring Matthias as Jack skid to the blond's side and without even missing a beat set to work on healing him up. He could hear the other two hurrying up behind him, saw J-Fred kneel by Matthias's other side in a panic, right away checking for consciousness or-at minimum-life.

"Shit, shit, shit-!" J-Fred muttered as his eyes fell on the injury while ignoring the slashes across his own chest (with the help of adrenaline and panic), quickly checking for breathing, for pulse. "Matthias?! C'mon, Matthias, talk to me, bro! C'mon!"

Matthew stood by, watching with a pained frown as the blood continued to flow from the gouges on his own body, but then moved between the group and the rest of the house, gripping his pipe. "Is he...?" he began as his eyes scanned the shadows, keeping an eye out for all of them.

"H-he's breathing, yeah, but-" J-Fred began.

"Yeah, it's bad," Jack replied grimly as he focused on the wound, watching as the blood slowly flowed back into it and a couple sickening squelches of tissue and organ repairing could be heard softly from within. "I mean-he's alive right now, and I'm here in time. And thank god for that, 'cause I can't cure death without a full reversal, after all."

J-Fred reached down to put a hand on his brother's head, the other turning on the safety before tucking the gun into his waistband and then moving to rest on his shoulder. "Hold on, big bro, we're going to get you all fixed up. Just hang on..."

Sure enough, the wound slowly began to seal back up, the color gradually returning to Matthias’s cheeks. The older blond suddenly coughed roughly-once, twice, several times, almost gasping a few times before his breathing settled again, evening out back to more so normal-but for the time being, he remained unconscious.

“Okay,” Jack finally sighed, his voice heavy with relief. “Alright. Next person. Here…” He stretched his arms forward, holding his hand over J-Fred’s chest as he focused. The younger Fredrick grimaced a bit, but Jack could see that he was biting his lip all the same-just to ensure no further noise drew anything from the darkness towards them. When he finally did speak, his eyes drifted down to Matthias.

“He isn’t-ah-waking up,” J-Fred noted worriedly, voice laced with pain but trying to keep it as quiet as possible.

“He’ll probably be out for a little bit,” Jack murmured softly. “That’s not too abnormal. We’ll get him back up to the safe room straightaway and he should be back up and about within the next hour or few. At least he’s stable now-I can say that much for a fact.” He frowned thoughtfully as he added, "We're just lucky Philippe retreated when he did."

"We are, even though it strikes me as almost  _ too _ convenient," Matthew agreed, not turning to look at them yet, eyes keeping watch on the darkness. "Seriously, why would it just retreat like that? I dunno about you guys, but-for a second it looked like it was actually listening to something. Or someone."

"Probably Anti, even though I didn't hear him at that point," Jack offered.

"Yeah, I didn't either. And if it was, that just brings up further questions-especially considering that other one-Abby, was it?-kinda did the same thing. Maybe he's got something planned for you and that's why he hasn't killed you. Yet, at least. But why the rest of us? He's never pulled back from doing so before...right?" Matthew questioned.

Jack hesitated as he considered before letting out a sigh and shaking his head. "For the moment, I'm just gonna count our blessings," he replied.

"I  _ did _ almost shoot that thing in the head," J-Fred pointed out. "I mean, if it were me, I would run too."

"Did it ever do that before?" Matthew pressed, to which Jack was silent, answering with nothing more than a troubled face that was only enhanced by the spell’s green glow.

J-Fred listened to the silence for a moment before he shook his head. "Next time I see that thing, I won't miss." If he planned on saying anything further, it was interrupted by his sudden sharp intake of breath as the wound finally began to seal shut, disappearing as if it never was.

"Next time you see that thing, you'd better not go out of your way to do anything stupid..." Jack muttered, lowering his arm and slowly moving to stand with only a slight wobble. "Matt, hey, you're next."

"C'mon, trade off," J-Fred muttered as he got up and put his hand on Matthew's shoulder to push him back gently and tiredly towards Jack to switch places.

Matthew nodded, casting one last glance towards the darkness before making his way over to Jack, to which the latter immediately began to heal up.

"Maybe there is a reason the monsters seem to be pulling back at the last minute this time around. It's a little weird," Jack confessed as he watched the wound draw back in blood and slowly heal up. "And very out of character for the monsters here. Something is definitely different in this loop overall, and I'm not sure if it's just Anti's...wholeness?" The Irishman frowned as he continued. "But we're only a few rooms short of fully unlocking this house. The key is bound to be in one of them. If by some miracle we can manage to get that door unlocked and escape this place, fuck the mystery. I'll be content just with everybody's survival."

"If that's what we can get, I'm willing to take it too," Matthew agreed. "I'm fine with leaving this place and never looking back. Or if we do, then to do it with the local authorities or whatever. Just-" He paused, seeming to work out the best way to pose his concerns before continuing. "Here's my concern: I know Steph and I are a little late to the party, but I just can't shake this feeling that something major is happening. Or will happen. And if we don’t figure out what that thing is, it’s going to come back around and bite us in the butts without us having any idea what to do about it.”

“...Well let’s hope not,” Jack murmured quietly. “I still think the sooner we get out of this place, the better. Regardless of whatever is happening, if we get our chance, we take it.”

He watched as the injury slowly sealed itself up, Matthew making a face in silent pain as it did. Finally he pulled his hand away, looking around at everyone. “Alright, that’s everyone. Let’s move.”

J-Fred nodded, moving to pick up his brother with some help as he muttered, “C’mon, man…”

The group swiftly and silently moved to head back upstairs, back to the previous safe room before scanning the area over for any signs of eyes on them. Upon finding none, they got the secret entranceway open, making their way up and closing it behind them to do the secret knock on the trapdoor.

The door swung open, Mark peering down at them before his eyes widened at their states.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” he swore, moving to help pull Matthias up through the hole when he was passed up to him. With Tyler’s help, the two quickly got him to a bed and set him down, Bryan rushing to the bedside to be joined by J-Fred. As the two spoke in hushed voices, Stephanie meanwhile rushed over to the door to peer down and make sure Matthew and the others were alright.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine,” Matthew reassured as he followed J-Fred up through the hole. He gave a slight wince as he realized just how tattered his shirt was. “I can’t exactly say the same for the shirt-” And dammit, that was the  _ second _ shirt he’d gone through in one night, too. “But I’m fine. We all are. Jack healed us.”

Stephanie exchanged an unreadable look with him before moving to help Jack up through the hole. “Well, thank you, Jack,” she muttered. Closing the trapdoor behind him, she asked, “So what happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So uh...I'm gonna be honest for a second, go easy on me in terms of the musical puzzle if I goofed it. I _think_ I might've gotten it decent? But I haven't done anything all that musically-related in over a decade and I'm going by piano sheet music as a reference, so I did the best I could. This chapter is up a bit later than I wanted it to be, but as a heads up as it _is_ almost Halloween, I think I'm gonna try and get out at least one or two other chapters before the end of the month. No promises but I will certainly make an effort-so something to look forward to! In the meantime, thanks so much for all the comments, kudos and support! Really helps with getting this stuff written and posted. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	44. Chapter 43

“We got into the pantry safe,” Matthew replied.

“And?” Mark pressed.

“We think we have the code to the top floor,” Jack replied. “2013.”

“The year your channel really took off. Cute,” Felix remarked, making a face.

“I guess,” Jack muttered.

“But so everyone’s okay? Everyone’s alive?” Mark affirmed worriedly, stealing a glance at Matthias’s prone body. As Jack nodded, he let out a sigh of relief. “Good.”

“So then, what’s our next move?” Ken asked. “Top floor?”

Jack hesitated before nodding. “Yeah. Top floor. Which is dangerous as fuck and-uh-” He winced suddenly. “Shit. It’s dangerous  _ just getting up to _ .” Moving to the table, he etched a sort of invisible outline on the surface, mostly everyone crowding around to get a look at. “First we get a flight of stairs up into a pretty much bare room...there’s a puzzle to get inside, and it requires twelve people-or twelve general weights-to trigger a puzzle that opens the lock to the door for the rest of the floor. After that there are two other rooms-but this is easily one of the most dangerous areas of the house.” Looking up at them grimly, he continued, “This is where Anti keeps the monsters. This is  _ their _ floor.”

“Well what are our odds we’ll find the key up there?” Ethan asked.

Jack hesitated to think it over before replying reluctantly, “...Anti  _ does _ like hiding the main key up there from time to time. It’s where we found the key the first time around...and other times that didn’t work out too well.” Pausing another moment, he swore under his breath before adding quietly, “We’ve actually died a  _ lot _ on that floor.”

Letting this sink in, Mark finally shook his head. “I don’t see how we have many other options,” he finally said. “We’ve turned over almost every other area of this house. We’re running out of places; it’s gotta be up there.”

“Before we go on ahead and do that, though,” Cry spoke up. “And I think we have the time to take a breath since everyone going up there means that Matthias has gotta be awake-” He turned to the Patricks. “You guys care to tell us this theory you both have been working out? You’ve been gathering up books and papers like hoarders. You guys onto something? Something that might be able to help us?”

The Patricks exchanged looks as Felix walked over to the table piled with the most stuff, picking up one of the closest ones as his eyes flicked across the title. “Hey, this one’s in French-” He set it down before picking up another. “Well this one’s in Swedish.  _ Transference of Time _ ? What the fuck?” Looking back at the two, Mark moved to his side to pick up another in German upon finding it.

“Ubertragung von Gesundheit roughly translates over to Transference of Health, I think,” Mark noted with a small frown.

“What  _ is _ all this?” Felix asked, looking from Stephanie to Matthew and back again.

Exchanging a look with Stephanie, Matthew looked over at Felix. “We started going through some of the books on the table while you guys were gone and started noticing a trend-especially when we also noticed the book Cry brought up here earlier. Transference of this, transference of that-”

“Jack?” Mark asked, eyes slipping over to the Irishman.

Jack blinked, eyes wide before shaking his head. “I...really don’t have any idea what that could possibly mean,” he admitted. “It’s something I genuinely haven’t discovered before-”

“Are things of us transferring over to Anti? Or things of  _ you? _ ” Mark asked. He then paused, a frown resting on his face for a moment before motioning to Jack. “Yeah. Yeah, things would  _ have _ to be. How else would he have taken on your voice and appearance?”

“It would explain how he’s able to go partly solid,” Matthias pointed out. “How the two of you seem to be linked together as far as wounds and everything go.”

“Yeah but-but time and...health…” Jack frowned with confusion. “I’ll admit, I’ve felt worn down and stressed out, but not necessarily sick. And as for time…” He shook his head. “Aside from all the time I’ve spent running through the cycles of this mansion, I have no idea how that would even-I mean-” He thought back for a moment. “Anti mentioned how many loops we’ve officially gone through-right now we’re on the hundred and twentieth loop. But even then, some of the loops-actually, a  _ lot _ of the more recent ones-aren’t even that much more than a few  _ hours _ . At most, if I’ve lost any time-and assuming if there was a time transfer for like...time off my life or something...it wouldn’t even amount to half a year. How exactly does  _ that _ help Anti?”

“Well-maybe the amount of time lost isn’t proportionate to the amount of time spent in the mansion,” Stephanie pointed out. “Maybe they’re not even very closely linked, if even at all.”

“Or maybe it’s not even really happening?” Jack pointed out, although not sounding nearly as convinced as he originally did, a nervousness settling into his features. “I mean, all of this is still just theory, right? How and why and-why me? Why  _ just _ me?”

“Because you’re the one winding back time?” Tyler pointed out. “Maybe the act of starting a new loop is what’s triggering it.”

“But I’m not even the only one doing it-” Jack stopped, drew in a deep breath. “Okay. Alright. I’ll bite,” he relented, raising his hands. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to consider this all but...I mean, unless I start feeling especially sick for no reason or suddenly start getting more gray hairs than I have already, how do we know for sure if that’s how it works or not?”

Matthew glanced up from the book in his hand, eyes falling on Jack. “I guess we’ll just have to keep a watchful eye out and kinda continuously monitor your condition,” he suggested with a helpless shrug. “And not let you reset the loop if we can help it, I guess? Especially if it’s before we know for sure. Better safe than sorry-” He gave Jack a small smile. “After all, you’ve got a million subscribers outside expecting your next videos. They’ll all be pretty upset if anything were to happen to you.”

Jack winced slightly at this, rubbing the back of his neck. “A million subscribers are a lot of people to let down, and I don’t even wanna let down  _ one, _ ” he remarked softly. “I’ll do my best to get out in one piece just as much as everybody else-” Noticing everyone’s stares, he blinked, eyes widening a slight bit. “...What?”

“Jack, did you…?” Felix began, frowning.

At this a nervousness fell over Jack’s face again. “What?” he asked. “What’s wrong? What did I…?”

“Jack…” Matthew began softly, holding up the book that was in his hand. “A little over a million subscribers is the  _ GTLive _ count. Mine and Steph’s channel.” The cover of the book read ‘Transference of Memory’. “Your subscriber count recently reached  _ seventeen million. _ ” Jack’s eyes widened at this, his face paling. “But you don’t remember that...do you?” the game theorist continued. He glanced over at Stephanie who bit her lip, then back at Jack. “...Do you at least remember us?”

Jack stared back at the two, still wide-eyed before shuffling and looking away. There was a long, painful silence before his reluctant response: “No. Not really.”

“What?!” Mark exclaimed, staring at Jack with eyes just as wide. “Jack...of course you remember us! All this time we’ve been together-there’s no way you just suddenly forgot about us-”

“I didn’t-ugh-” Jack grimaced before shaking his head. “It’s not like that-it’s complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it,” Felix ordered, frowning. “Jack-seriously? Why the fuck didn’t you say anything-?!”

“Because I wasn’t sure it was even actually a thing at first!” Jack finally replied. “I mean-I started to suspect? Certainly not in the beginning but-” He shook his head again. “It’s not just some straight-forward, linear memory loss. Okay? It’s just-it’s bits and pieces scattered everywhere in my head and one by one it’s like they’re being pulled away from me. And then...and then how is one even aware that they’ve lost memories when they can’t even remember them being there in the first place?”

“Well-ugh, good god, okay-do you still remember  _ us _ at least?” Ken asked, frowning worriedly.

Jack hesitated for a long moment before slowly shaking his head. “Not...not very well, no,” he replied quietly. “All the memories I have built up in here...all of them are pretty clear. But as for anything before we started going into this place…”

“And...Robin?” Mark asked quietly. Swallowing as he considered the worst-case scenario, he added, “Signe?”

Jack stared at him for a long moment in utter silence before he lowered his head.

“But everything in the mansion that you’ve experienced-” Mark shook his head. “But it seems like you would’ve slipped up on this sooner if you remember so little-”

“Again, everything that’s happened in the mansion is still pretty clear to me. Talking about what I remember before the actual memories themselves disappear, it...it helps.” Jack frowned and bit his lip as he searched for his next words. “I remember talking about them, at least. But sometimes details don’t even really get mentioned or left out and...well, then it gets fucked.” He winced. “For what it’s worth, I did still have a vague memory of...of Signe’s face. I had no reminders, I can’t even  _ look _ at her picture because my phone won’t work anymore. But I managed to hold onto that vague memory up until I was ambushed in the library, when I managed only minimal healing on myself and Cry had to heal up the rest of me in this loop. But after that incident...then it-it was gone…”

“Steph and I...sort of have a theory about this?” Matthew offered, looking around at everyone. “Think of Jack’s brain as a computer for just a moment. Every time he goes back in time, he keeps the memories of the loop. But these memories take up a  _ lot _ of space in his brain, so in order for them to keep piling up, his normal memories are forgotten-”

“Then stop remembering loops,” Mark ordered, turning back to Jack.

Jack shook his head. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to,” he replied, frustration weighing on his voice. “And even if I could, I wouldn’t. Look-the memories help me remember everything I’m doing right and wrong in a loop. If I don’t retain them, I can’t get everyone out of here alive. It’s that simple-”

“No it’s not-!”

“Shit, man,” Cry muttered. “I suspected. I should’ve said something.  _ Dammit.” _ As eyes swiveled on him, he looked around.

“Cry?” Felix asked somewhat anxiously. “What do you mean? What have you forgotten?”

Cry let out a sigh, frustrated as well-frustrated at himself. “I can’t remember the names of my freaking pets,” he confessed. “And some of the...some of the stuff having to do with the Late Night Crew- It’s not really anything big-at least, as far as I’m aware of. But it’s still...it’s still enough to bug me.” Turning his eyes on Jack, he continued, “And considering just how big of a chunk of your memories must be missing by now…”

“But Cry, you haven’t even wound back time,” Mark pointed out.

“I haven’t restarted any loops, no-” Cry agreed.

“But you guys are using magic,” Matthew pointed it. “Think of it in the mechanics of Once Upon a Time-or even most fantasy things or even video games, for that matter: magic usually comes at a cost.”

“In this case, it’s Jack’s memories. His health. His...everything,” Stephanie agreed. “That’s why Anti’s becoming so solid. That’s why he knows so much about all of us. Every time Jack uses magic, Anti’s able to leech just another little bit more off of him.”

“He’s  _ literally becoming Jack,” _ Matthew finished.

“But-hold on a minute,” Bryan finally spoke up, looking back and forth between the two before resting his eyes on Jack. “If that’s the case, then once everything is all said and done...what the hell happens to Jack?”

“And is there any way of reversing this?” Tyler added. “We need to consider that even if we all get out of here alive, now we’ve got a half-amnesiac Jack and Anti in...whatever state…”

“...We could try burning the book,” Mark suggested. “Destroying it in some way-?”

“We’re not burning the book,” Jack nearly snapped. “This book is the only way I’ve been able to keep ye all alive. If we destroy the book and we fuck up again, we don’t get another chance-”

“So maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Mark countered. “Maybe whatever happens is what’s supposed to happen.”

Jack shook his head. “There’s no way I’m going to accept that,” he shot back. “Especially after everything I’ve been through and everything I’ve lost. No. Everyone’s getting out of here-”

“Okay, hey, so maybe there’s a way we can salvage whatever is left of Jack and not destroy the book. Yet,” Felix jumped in. Looking around at everyone, he suggested, “Maybe someone else should be the book wielder for the time being.”

“What? No. Then Anti goes after them too-”

“Who cares? He’s going after all of us regardless. I will,” Mark offered.

“Like hell you will-”

Cry looked from one person to the other, exchanging a look with Ethan for a moment before sighing and stepping up to hold out his hand. “ _ I will. _ ”

Everyone stopped and turned to look at Cry. Stared for just a moment. Finally Mark was the one to speak.

“Cry-what-”

“I’ll switch off with Jack,” Cry offered. “I mean-fuck it, I’m already on Anti’s shit list. How much worse can it get for me at this point?”

“ _ You could lose your memories-” _

“ _ Guys _ .” Cry sighed. “I really think this is a gradual process-and not a very fast one. How many loops did it take for Jack to get up to this point? A hundred and twenty? We’re looking to get out of  _ this one. _ Right here. Right now. And we’re  _ so close _ .” He shook his head. “If I forget anything important, you guys can just...just say I hit my head or something. I’m sure the memories will come back eventually. And if they don’t, hopefully the memory loss involved with whatever needs to be done during whatever we have left will be minimal.”

Jack’s gaze lingered reluctantly on Cry. “Cry…” he began, the guilt weighing on him obvious in his voice, on his form.

“Are you sure about this, Cry?” Felix asked. “Whatever happens, there might not be any going back.”

Cry nodded. “I am,” he replied. “Minimal memory loss versus death? Or everyone escaping with a totally amnesiac Jack? I think the minimal memory loss is still a  _ way _ better option, if I had to choose between any of that.” Turning to Jack, he held out his knife. “Trade-off? I know it’s not the most badass weapon here, but my knife for your book.” As Jack frowned, Cry continued, “It’s time you started fighting to get yourself out, too. And it’s time you  _ really _ started trusting us again.”

Jack hesitated for a long moment, looking around before sucking in a deep breath and nodding quickly, handing over the book before second thoughts persuaded him to keep it. "Don't use it unless it looks like you really have to," Jack instructed, to which Cry nodded.

"I won't. Trust me, I  _ really _ won't," Cry agreed, eyes drifting down at the book. "I don't have any real desire to give up any more of my memories unless necessary...or give anything else up to Anti, for that matter."

"...Okay." Felix exhaled a sigh, sounding rather unnerved and unsettled by the whole thing but doing his best to roll with it. "Okay. So now that we have all of that said and done: what's our next move? We still heading up to the top floor?"

"We've got to," Jack replied quietly. "We're pretty low on our options otherwise."

"The good news is that I think we might actually have a higher chance of surviving than any other attempt there," Matthew pointed out. "After all-it looks like Anti's starting to pull back some. Attacking us here and there, yeah, but-ultimately not following through. At least not recently. He's pulling back at the last minute, starting to withdraw his monsters when a potential kill is about to happen."

"Which could be hinting at something about to happen," Tyler pointed out. "But for now, maybe we can consider this our best chance of checking the place out."

"Woah, one thing before we really do any of that," Mark replied softly before turning to Ethan. "Ethan?"

Ethan's eyes flickered up at him, wide and curious. "Hm?"

"So magic potentially comes at a cost? And the book you have now? Is it...do you still have all of your memories and everything? Your health, your...whatever else?" Mark shrugged helplessly at his failure to list any other potentials.

To his relief, Ethan nodded. "Yeah. Everything's still functioning and intact and...yeah. I'm not really having any issues." He paused. "I mean, the health thing-I get tired out here and there if I use too much magic and probably if I ever ended up using anything that was particularly strong. But I'm pretty much fine other than that."

"Thank god," Mark muttered.

"For what it's worth, I've never seen it cause anything too adverse to him," Jack vouched. "With the exception of certain spells, I think whatever brand of magic that book runs on uses up mana or whatever." He paused as he thought about how best to phrase it before continuing, "The amount of magical ability Ethan has is something that will also carry from loop to loop-be it additions and deficits. If he finds any of the glowing powder that generally seems to trigger the reawakening of his magical abilities, that will help to give him a boost because I want to say that's like...maybe some kind of powdered magical residue-or something." He shrugged. "And that tends to accumulate, strengthening his abilities so he can use more spells as well as more powerful spells without tiring. Minus the kamikaze one."

"So I shouldn't expect this magic to be infinite," Ethan noted.

"Definitely not in this place, no," Jack replied. "And again, just-just don't use the kamikaze attack. That attack will one-shot away whatever monster but it's just pure sacrifice."

"Wait, okay, so explain this a bit? This kamikaze attack?" Tyler asked, frowning.

"I've already pointed it out to Ethan, but..." Jack frowned. "It's a spell that obliterates the enemy in one move. Unfortunately it requires great personal sacrifice. It's often more magic in one blast than the user can handle, I think, so normally it'll blow them up. Best-case scenario, it uses up all the user's magic and...I guess starts leeching off the user's body to complete the spell?" Jack shrugged, not completely sure on the mechanics but taking a guess as to how they most likely worked. "Because in the rare cases of survival, Ethan comes out missing one of his senses. He can't see, he can't hear-something like that. It's beyond my healing abilities, and in this house, a state like that is a borderline death sentence regardless. And either way the spell goes, the state of depleted magic carries on to the next loop so in those cases, you can barely do even some of the most basic spells."

"So I guess I haven't used that spell at all recently," Ethan remarked.

Jack frowned. "You haven't really gotten the chance," he admitted.

"Okay but seriously, this just makes me wonder even further who the fuck that book belongs to," Felix pointed out. "It doesn't seem to be Anti's."

"I'm pretty sure it's not Anti's," Jack agreed.

"Maybe it belonged to the brother mentioned in the notes," Stephanie suggested. "Maybe he was some kind of a magic user too."

“I mean, it’d make sense,” Matthew suggested. “I guess. We really need some translation of those pages to be sure though.”

“Maybe, but…” Ethan spoke up, looking down at the book. His fingers flipped through a few more pages before finally closing the book and opening the front cover. “There’s a note in here: In case lost, return to...and then an address.”

Felix frowned slightly, moving to take a look. “Says the return address is in Wales. Not exactly close.”

“Well-what if the book belonged to another victim who didn’t make it out?” Ken suggested. “What if it ended up being brought here?”

“What are the odds of that happening though?” Mark wondered.

“Magic attracts magic?” Matthew shrugged. “Maybe people who use it network?”

“Yeah, I’m totally sure that’s it. That’s what it is. Magic networking,” Felix said flatly with a voice as dry as sun-baked parchment but then rubbed his eyes. “Shit I’m tired. Sorry, we just...we really need for this night to be over. And preferably be outside this house.”

“Tell me about it,” Cry muttered.

Ethan frowned slightly as he watched the group, considering for a moment before looking around the room. “Ken, you said there were remains of another group in here?” he asked.

Ken blinked, looking over at him. “What? Yeah. Why?” Making a face, he asked, “You don’t wanna go looking for them, do you?”

Ethan cringed a little. “Kinda-” he began. But then he glanced down at his own book. “I want to know who owned this thing once and for all. I feel like it’d at least give us the reassurance that it wasn’t another book of Anti’s.”

“You even got a name in there?” Bryan asked.

Ethan shook his head. “No, just the address,” he replied. “Even so though, it’s…” He frowned. “It’s just kind of a feeling.”

Ken exchanged a look with Mark, Tyler and Cry before casting a reluctant wave towards the corner of the room. “The remains are over there,” he replied. “I’m not entirely sure what it is you’re expecting to find though.”

Ethan nodded, heading over to the corner of the final bed that’d been draped over with sheets and whatnot. As he did, he held a hand out before him, aiming it towards the sheets. “When I first found the book…” he began in a mutter. “The magic I absorbed reacted to it. Maybe...the magic will react to the book’s owner too-”

And sure enough, glowing lines of blue crept up his hand and wrist. He sucked in a breath as he stopped before the lump, hesitating before tentatively reaching out to lightly grasp the sheet and tug it gently to the side. The sheet slid off with a soft sound and revealed the remains of the three people, causing his breath to catch. Blue-green eyes drifted from one person to another, then down at his hand as he guided it around. His hand finally came to a stop, hovering over the sitting figure dressed in a drab green uniform and tie, the frown on the blunette’s face deepening.

“This guy,” he noted softly. “It was this guy. He was the original owner.”

“So then it probably was a former victim,” Mark noted softly with a frown.

Ethan nodded, eyes fixated on the figure before drifting to the two others. Giving a hard swallow as he pushed down the sudden rising realization that this could be  _ them _ if they weren't careful enough, he finally tore his eyes away to turn back to the others. "Yeah. Okay. So." Stepping away from the bodies, he glanced back down at the book as he took slow, distracted steps to rejoin the group. "Once we get out of here, definitely checking out this address and returning this book-" An uncharacteristic grimness weighing on his features, he added, "I'm guessing the address is to his house or...or maybe to a friend? A colleague? A next-of-kin?"

He shook his head. "Either way, if there's even anyone there at all, I'm...I'm sure they knew him. They have a right to know what happened and where he is."

Mark nodded. "Agreed," he noted softly. "Just-we'll be sure to go with you. I don't think any of us need to be visiting sketchy magic houses anymore, especially not alone." Eyes lowering to the floor, he added, "All this does make me wonder a little bit though: how many groups have wandered into this place, just like us?"

"Yeah, and how many of them have actually managed to get out alive?" Ken added.

"Let's try and stay positive," Ethan replied, stealing a glance at Jack before looking over at Mark. "Anyway, yeah, thanks. I-I agree: no solo runs to weird British houses." He let out a sigh. "So then...yeah. I don't think we have to worry too much about this book beyond whatever spells are too dangerous to use."

"Finally, one less thing to worry about," Tyler noted. "For once."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Got a chapter up and gonna try to get one out this Halloween, so keep an eye out! Anywho, hoo boy. Shit got heavy this chapter. In the meantime, thanks so much for all the comments, kudos and support! Really helps with getting this stuff written and posted. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	45. Chapter 44

"Yeah, and good thing, too," J-Fred agreed. "We've got some good weapons here, but I don't think we're gonna get that much better than a spellcaster-experienced or not. It’s kind of an advantage I don’t think we can really afford losing-” Hearing a soft noise coming from the occupied bed, his attention was immediately drawn away, eyebrows raising as he looked over before immediately making his way to his brother’s side. “Matthias?” he asked. “Hey, you alright?”

“What hit me?” Matthias whispered as his eyes opened a small bit. His head turned slightly, mind seeming to slowly register just where he was and what happened and everything that had gone on up to this point-and with that suddenly hitting him, about bolted upright to look around at everyone with alarm.

“Hey, woah, woah, we’re all alright,” J-Fred reassured, moving to put an arm on his shoulder. “Everybody’s fine. Thanks to Jack.”

“Thanks to everyone else,” Jack muttered. “All I really do is heal people.”

J-Fred offered Jack a small grin before looking back at Matthias, who was checking his torso-particularly where the bloody hole was in his shirt. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay. Maybe a little less than that-” Matthias shrugged. “Better than being dead, at least.” Doing another sweep around the room to take their surroundings and attendance into account, he asked, “So everyone’s here and alright, really?”

“Really,” Matthew reassured with a small grin.

“We’ve had a couple of small change-ups and...some extra things have been happening. Things we kinda just found out about. I’ll fill you in on that stuff,” J-Fred reassured.

“So we’re about to head upstairs and put in that code?” Tyler affirmed, turning to the rest of the group. “The keypad’s electric though. Unless we can get that fusebox fixed up…”

“Oh yeah. That’s actually another thing we wanted to bring up,” Mark spoke up, reaching into his pocket and producing a fuse.

Cry straightened a bit. “You found it?” he asked, intrigued. “Where was it?”

“Behind one some of the books in the upstairs library,” Mark replied. “And hopefully once we jam this into the fuse box-”

“The power will come back on,” Tyler finished with a slight grin. “Well. At least that’s something in our favor, finally.”

“We should get a small group together to get that done first then,” Jack suggested. “We do that, kick back on the power, regroup up here...and then try the upstairs. I guess.” He shrugged, but then looked over at Cry somewhat awkwardly, used to going with every group at this point as healer but knowing that now it was not to be. Regardless… “I’ll go with the group-”

“You’re not going as healer,” Cry pointed out. “Or a lure.”

“I know. That’s going to be you this time. But I was down there with the last group and I know what to keep an eye out for. Besides, I’d like to be as active with everyone as possible so I can remember what went wrong if anything does and I have to do a rewind.”

“Not doing another one of those,” he heard Mark mutter off to the side but ignored.

Cry considered for a moment, looking around at everyone with an iffy look beneath the mask before finally shrugging. “Fair enough. I guess,” he replied.

“We’ll switch out for this group otherwise,” Tyler offered. “Let Matthias get filled in on any new stuff and recover a bit.”

“Me, you, Cry and Jack?” Felix offered, looking around. Holding up his flamethrower and clearing his throat a little, he added, “You guys are gonna need someone with a bit of range.”

“I-sure,” Jack sighed.

Felix turned to the Patricks as he moved to take the fuse from Mark. “Since you guys seem to be pretty on top of this, if you guys could maybe keep at it, see if there’s any sort of way of reversing or at least stopping this process? It’d help if we knew more about this whole thing and what to do about it-while we’re here or at least once we’ve escaped.”

Matthew nodded. “You got it,” he agreed. “We might need your help some with translating the Swedish book.”

Felix nodded. “I can do that, yeah,” he agreed.

Tyler looked around at everyone, eyes lingering on Mark and Ethan for a moment. “You guys save your strength for a bit. Get ready to head out and all,” he advised. “Once this works out, we’re all headed up to the top floor. Considering what Jack’s warned us about with that area, we should probably expect the worst.”

“Got it. Be careful,” Mark replied, moving to the door as the group prepared to head out. Once the door was open, they headed down again, watching as it shut behind them.

“So for some reason the monsters are retreating,” Jack noted as they reached the back of the armoire, pushing it open. The group all looked at him with surprise.

“I thought the monsters attacked you guys?” Felix asked.

“Philippe did. And-yeah, Abby did at that one point. But then after fighting for a while, they retreated,” Jack explained. “That’s highly out of character for them. They’ve _never_ done that before. I mean-Anti could just be fucking with us like this point, playing cat and mouse, but...”

“Maybe they’re trying to push you to use your healing more and more,” Tyler suggested. “Especially if the whole transference thing from you to Anti is right, and it really is happening the more you use your magic.”

“Yeah, but up to that point it’s never actually stopped Anti from having us killed,” Cry pointed out, frowning underneath his mask. “And really, I’d think reversing time would siphon away more in one go than just frequent healing.”

“Unless he wants this to be our last loop for some reason,” Felix noted. “We’ve seen enough new stuff happen recently to maybe suggest that.”

Cry’s frown deepened as he looked over at Jack. “Jack, about how much of...well... _you_ do you think you have left? Your memories, your...everything?”

Jack frowned as well, expression thoughtful. “Not a ton, to be honest,” he confessed. “But not enough for him to have _all_ of me anytime soon.”

“Maybe he wants us all to get up to the top floor,” Tyler suggested. “Could be a trap?”

“It’s almost always a trap. Or at least an ambush,” Jack sighed. “Or at the _very_ least dangerous. And-I mean ideally it takes ten to twelve people to get to the main portion of the twelfth floor. They can be substituted with stuff of similar weight but…” He frowned. “It does draw a lot of attention dragging things to up the stairs and into the right spots.”

“...I’m not even gonna ask what you mean by ‘similar weights’,” Cry sighed, shaking his head. The group headed down the corridor and to the stairs, heading down them as their lights swept the area, their voices falling into silence. As they turned down the hallway where the kitchen/lounge area and downstairs library was, they could see the stains of blood still on the walls and floors. Jack swallowed and cast a quick, uncertain look towards Cry for a moment before looking on ahead, anxious not to look at the blood. As soon as the group filtered into the lounge portion, Tyler shut the door behind them and locked it.

“Alright, let’s get this done quick,” he suggested, to which Jack nodded.

“Please do,” he replied as they made their way through the kitchen portion and to the pantry. As Felix and Cry headed into the pantry, Jack lingered by the door with Tyler, who stood guard with katana at the ready.

Jack’s eyes lingered tiredly on the equipment still laying in the corner, still mostly untouched since Cry first entered the house. Rubbing his eyes, Tyler gave him a sideways look with concerned eyes.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” he asked. “Maybe you should’ve switched out with someone else upstairs. Researching into this whole mess is just as important as being where the action is-at least then you’ll have a better idea as to what hell’s going on.”

Jack shook his head. “I think I’m going to be fine, it’s good. It’s just been a long night, is all,” he replied softly. After a moment of pause, he added, “And we’re _so close_. I want to get out of here with all of you so bad. But I just keep waiting for something to fuck up major. That’s how it’s always gone, and the fact that Anti’s pulling back now...”

Tyler frowned. “Giving enough of a breather to allow hope to someone and then just snatch it away _would_ be right up Anti’s alley,” he agreed. “I’m trying not to think too much into it. Enough to still be on guard but not enough to let it get to me too much.” Looking back at Jack, he added, “But if we really start doubting, it’s going to be enough to get under our skin. Self-fulfilling prophecy and all.”

Jack made a face. “Maybe?” he asked. Letting out a sigh, he winced a bit. “Yeah. I kinda have enough experience with that as is…” Letting his words drift off for a moment in thought, he finally said, “Stay positive. It’s important to be realistic here. But even then, we all just have to stay positive.”

Tyler allowed a small smile to cross his face as he looked over at Jack. “That’s the Jack we all know,” he noted. “We’ve all got to stay positive and count our blessings-” He looked up as a soft buzz hummed above them, the light and air clicking on. “Like that. Let there be light.” His smile widened out to more of a grin as he glanced back at Felix and Cry emerging from the pantry. “Seems like it all went well.”

“Thank fuck. We couldn’t keep relying on our phone lights forever,” Felix sighed with relief. “Especially when so few of us have them at this point.”

“Now for the hard part,” Cry murmured as he glanced over at Jack. The Irishman was still trying to appear positive but the worry on his face was obvious. “Let’s head back upstairs and regroup. Let’s finish this.”

“Agreed,” Felix agreed, heading back out into the corridor with the others and up the stairs. All remained silent and still and really it was uncertain as to whether or not that was _worse_. On one hand, a moment of calm was always a good thing. On the other though...why?

“Maybe we made Anti back off a little with the lights on,” Felix suggested as they reached the second floor, voicing all their thoughts but sounding as unconvinced as they felt.

“Doubtful. He’s never had an issue with the lights being on before,” Jack murmured, turning back into the former safe room with the others. Tyler paused at the door, peering down the hall to ensure no eyes were on them as Felix got the armoire open and stepped through, followed by the others. When he noted all was clear, he hurried to follow, closing the armoire doors first before closing the back portion, locking it shut and heading up the short staircase with the others.

When the door opened at their secret knock, they climbed up into the safe room to be greeted by relieved (if not slightly anxious) faces, morale boosted by the return of electricity and light.

“I take it everything went smoothly?” Ken asked as he helped Tyler up through the door and Mark shut the door behind them.

“Surprisingly smooth. No monster encounters, no signs of Anti or anything,” Felix replied, looking around at everyone, then over at Matthias. “How’s he doing?”

“A lot better,” Matthias replied, looking over at the group. As his eyes fell onto Jack, a frown flickered through them. “You really don’t remember us?”

Jack shuffled somewhat guiltily, unable to meet his eyes-or anyone’s eyes, for that matter. “I do, I just-most of my memories are from what I remember of you guys in here,” he confessed.

“Have you guys made any headway on that at all?” Cry asked, looking over at the Patricks and Ethan, to which Matthew shook his head.

“No. Not really, no,” Matthew replied with a sigh as Felix headed over to pick up the book written in Swedish to flip through again.

Mark meanwhile turned to the rest of the returned group. “We were talking about maybe packing things up,” he suggested. “We’ve got three backpacks. We might need this stuff to help return memories and everything else to those who have used the book-” His eyes lingered on Jack as he mentioned this before flickering over to Cry and Ethan. “Because once we get that key, I don’t think it’ll be in our best interests to risk making any return trips to this place. If it’s really that dangerous upstairs-there’s a chance we might be chased out of there or otherwise. We can’t afford detours.”

“Yeah, and safe to say nobody’s gonna wanna come back to this place once we’re out,” Ken pointed out.

“Not to mention if the authorities investigate this place once we’re out, they’re going to confiscate everything. Or at the very least, make sure nobody else will enter this place,” Stephanie added. “If things go wrong and we need this stuff to help fix it, it’s probably a choice of leave with it now or forever hold our peace.”

“That’s fair enough,” Cry agreed, nodding. Eyes flickering over to tables, a frown crossed his face. “Ugh, it’s kind of a lot.”

“It’s not gonna be too much,” J-Fred assured, moving to head over to the table to stack some books into a small pile. “No more than a standard college load.” Glancing back at his brothers, he added, “Right guys?”

Matthias blinked, then shrugged and nodded. “Sure,” he agreed. “I think we’ll be able to manage it. Probably won’t be able to fight as well at the same time, but…”

“If needed, I’m willing to take up a backpack,” Ken volunteered. “I don’t got much in the way of my own weapons anyway.”

“That can be Matthias’s,” Bryan suggested. “Considering Joey and I have range weapons anyway, I don’t think movement is going to be too much of an issue for us-but since Matthias has an axe and all…”

“Let’s just avoid anyone getting stabbed this time around,” J-Fred sighed, glancing back at Matthias.

“Let’s just avoid anyone getting hurt in general if we can manage it,” Matthew suggested as the group set to work packing up various things.

“That’s something I think we can all definitely get behind,” Cry agreed, glancing over at Jack. “And if we can just avoid using magic as much as possible...I mean I’m not saying I’m not down for healing up life-or-death injuries or anything, but maybe we should start getting into the habit of patching up minor injuries by normal means if we can manage it.”

Jack shuffled slightly but nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that’d probably be a good idea,” he agreed.

“And if we run into trouble but don’t find the key up there…” Ken began, looking around at everyone.

Everyone exchanged looks before Jack finally spoke. “If that ends up being the case, we can all retreat to the cell in the back rooms. It’s not hidden, but it’s got better defenses than this place.”

“Sounds like a decent idea,” Tyler agreed.

“Jack. Are we going to need to do a lot of searching when we make it up there?” Felix asked.

“Yeah, Jack. Tell us exactly what to expect once there. Layout of the rooms, hiding places...anything?”

Jack frowned. “There isn’t anything up there,” he confessed. “No furniture or...anything. You’ve got the puzzle in the first room, but otherwise…” He shrugged. “There’s a cell that stretches the length of the hallway where all the monsters are kept. And some of the monsters are in the next room over sometimes. But otherwise the room’s pretty bare and that’s the one good thing going for it: if the key is in there, we’ll likely know from a quick glance.”

The others seemed fairly satisfied as they set to work packing and planning. Jack watched them for a long moment before quietly heading over to one of the beds, his back to them and pulling up his shirt to poke a little bit at the bandages around his stomach while examining them. With a slight wince at the stinging pain of pressure and the sight of blood staining the light bandage regiment, he tugged a bit at the top to try and peek underneath. Seriously, what the _fuck_ was going on with this thing…?

So distracted was he with his injury that he didn’t even notice as Matthias slipped by to settle down next to him and watch for a moment. Finally Matthias decided to speak.

“It looks like those cuts soaked through the bandages a little bit,” he noted with quiet concern. “They don’t look very well wrapped, either.”

Jack blinked and looked over at him. “Ah-uh-maybe? I guess-” he confessed, frowning slightly. “Actually I was just considering checking on it. It’s been stinging a little bit and I think it keeps bleeding on and off. But I don’t really wanna have to deal with taking it off and having to wrap it and tie it back again.” At the last part, he was unable to keep the slight whine out of his voice. “Especially considering everything else we have to deal with in the meantime and the fact that our bandages are kinda limited. I mean, if it looks like we should probably change them or anything...”

“I’m sure we could find more first aid kits in the room with all that stuff from past loops. And with that in mind, I wouldn’t even worry about bandages,” Matthias pointed out. He sighed. “If it needs to be done and-yeah-it looks like it might have to-at the moment I can’t think of a better time. We’re in a safe place and preparing for what could amount to the an intense battle and even the final stretch. Wouldn’t it be better to be safe than sorry? Especially before we knowingly walk into danger? What if they’re somehow infected or something? I doubt the knife Anti used on you was all that sanitary.” Watching Jack frown slightly, poking a couple more times at the bandages, he added, “Yeah-here, let’s take a quick look at it.”

Jack bit his lip before nodding, moving to fumble a bit with the bandages as Matthias got up to bring the first aid kit over-just in case. “So-” the latter continued as he took a seat on the neighboring bed so he could be across from Jack and get a better look. “Is stinging and bleeding the only thing it seems to be doing? You’re not feeling feverish or anything, are you?”

Jack shook his head. “Not really,” he assured. “It’s pretty much been just the things you listed right there. To be honest, I _think_ it’s more of an issue that I’m tearing the wounds back open with all the excitement that’s been going on.”

“That would probably make sense, yeah…” Matthias agreed, watching as Jack finished untying the bandage and proceeded to unwrap the few thin layers.

Jack’s eyes flickered up to him as he started to reach the end. “You do any doctor stuff? Outside of youtube, I mean?”

Matthias managed a soft smile dampered by the reality that this wasn’t just some joke, that this was a legitimate question asked by a friend that was shorted so many memories. “No,” he replied. Clearing his throat, he continued, “Ah-no. Not really. I just have brothers…” With a light chuckle he added, “Brothers and at least a few youtube channels that allow for a lot of stupid injuries sometimes.”

Jack managed a small chuckle at this. “I kinda get how it is. I have a few brothers. And sisters too...I think…” His smile suddenly faded before he added quietly, “I can barely remember their faces. Some I can’t even remember at all.”

Matthias frowned as he imagined what it must be like, living a reality where you could barely even remember your family. “We’ll get you back to them,” he promised. “And we’ll figure out a way to get your memories back. Some way or another. With luck, maybe they’ll all just return as soon as you’re out of here.” Even though unless that was a thing, he wasn’t entirely sure _how_ they were going to live up to that promise at the moment-well. One thing at a time. The memory loss issue would be something they could work on resolving as soon as they were out of this place.

As the bandage was finally pulled away to reveal the clock pattern, Matthias frowned upon getting a good look at it. “Oh yeah. Some of them are definitely bleeding alright.” Not much-the cuts were still fairly shallow. But the numbers on the clock-one through ten to be precise-were definitely oozing blood. Leaning forward to get a closer look, he paused for a moment, then looked up at Jack. “Why is your blood so dark?” he asked.

“Wait-what?” Jack asked, trying to angle as best he could to look down at his stomach.

“It’s like...hold on-” Glancing up at the group and waving over to the first person that met eyes with him, he scooted over a bit to make room for Stephanie.

“What’s up?” she asked. In response Matthias waved to the injury, guiding her eyes to it. Stephanie looked down at the injury as her eyes widened a bit, then frowned. “What is going on with those cuts?”

Matthias shook his head, dragging a hand back through his hair. “We thought it was just them getting ripped open from all the running and stuff. But it’s only one through ten and now I’m not so sure?”

“Yeah, and his blood is really dark.”

“Are we sure it’s maybe just not the effect of uh...maybe dried blood?” Jack asked uncomfortably, to which Stephanie looked up at him and shook her head. “No. This blood is wet.” Noticing the look on Jack’s face, she added, “I’d ask how long it’s been like this, but judging by the look on your face, I’m going to go on ahead and guess the answer is ‘not very long’.”

Jack nodded, eyes a bit wide. Matthias frowned, then shook his head. “So it is infected,” he muttered, to which Stephanie shook her head.

“I don’t think darker blood is usually a sign of infection,” she pointed out. “This is something else.”

“Maybe the knife was coated with something?” Matthias suggested.

“Maybe?” Stephanie’s frown deepened. “Jack, something is happening to you. I don’t know if this is a side-effect of transference or…” She shook her head, letting the sentence drop. She had just as many answers to this as Matthias did on this front. “But we’re dealing with magic and things we can’t even begin to understand here. At the moment, I think we should just consider it a good thing that we convinced you to give the book over to someone else for a change.”

“So that someone else could go through this,” Jack noted glumly with a twinge of guilt, to which Stephanie shook her head, leaning forward and reaching out to put her hand on his knee.

“Not for very long,” she promised. “Definitely not long enough for this to happen a second time. We’ll make sure to monitor it.” Looking over at Matthias, she added, “I think the best thing we can do is clean it and bandage it up for now. I’m gonna go warn Cry, ask if he and Ethan have noticed anything similar going on with them.”

Matthias nodded. “Got it,” he agreed, moving to grab the antiseptic. As he began cleaning the injuries a bit, Jack let out a small hiss, wincing a bit at the sting. “Sorry,” Matthias muttered, focused on his work. “Just keep that shirt held up, okay?”

Jack bit his lip and nodded with a small frown.

“Is there any particular point in time you notice these wounds opening up?” Matthias asked. “Maybe they open up whenever you perform a healing spell?”

Jack shook his head. “If that were the case, I feel like I’d have a lot more of this opened back up,” he replied through the pain. “Ah-to be honest, when shit goes down, I’ve got so much adrenaline going through me that if there is any pain or anything, I don’t really realize until mostly after the fact.”

Matthias nodded. “Yeah, I can believe that,” he agreed. Glancing up at Jack, he frowned slightly as he said, “Hey, Jack? I didn’t...give you a hard time in other time loops, did I?” Jack froze a little and started to shake his head, opening his mouth when Matthias added, “Be honest.”

_“They’re dead!”_

Jack frowned.

 _“I don’t know how you’re controlling these monsters but...I mean, look at the footage! You were there! You were there_ **_counting down, doing commentary!_ ** _My brothers are dead because of you!”_

Jack closed his mouth and bit his lip, looking away uncomfortably.

 **_“NO! Please, don’t do this! You don’t realize what’s happening-!”_ ** _Blue eyes watched as the cell door clanged shut, expression saturated in panic as a hand reached through the bars, tried reaching out to someone-anyone-in the group as they all left to find the main key._

_Without him._

**_“You’re all gonna die! Come back!”_ ** _The pleas came back with a crack in his voice. As the door to the room the cell was in slammed shut, Jack whispered, “Please… Please come back...”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, and happy Halloween! To celebrate the Halloweenness of this fic, I've got a new chapter out for everyone and it's slightly extra-long. Now I've gotta book it to a haunted house thing but in the meantime-thanks so much for all the comments, kudos and support! Really helps with getting this stuff written and posted. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	46. Chapter 45

Matthias stared at Jack for a long while, noticing the look on his face before frowning himself. “I did…” he whispered. “Jack...what did I-?”

“It’s fine. It’s fine,” Jack quickly interrupted, forcing a small smile as he desperately tried pushing the negative feelings away. The anger...the hopelessness...but more predominantly, the despair. The gnawing paranoia that took its opportunity to try and surge back through his veins, reminding him that as much as these people claimed he could trust them, he truly...truly couldn’t. They could all turn on him at a moment’s notice; he’d seen sides to these people that even they didn’t know about. This was hopeless, this was hopeless, this was hopeless-

And then with a jolt he realized concerned eyes were staring at him, worry etched across the older Fredrick’s features. He suddenly realized he couldn’t even tell if his thoughts were his own anymore, or if it was all completely paranoia drilled into his head by Anti. It all sounded like his words, but even if they were-how could he have even been lying after all that?

Who even were these people to him?

He couldn’t remember.

Could hardly remember beyond this stupid...fucking...house…

His friends.

Maybe even his best friends.

What was he even...how could he even think that they would try and hurt him? He didn’t remember the Patricks necessarily, but the others at least-they tried so hard to protect him. They would  _ lay down their lives _ protecting him. Again and again, and although it could be argued that they were all just keeping him alive to use him for necessary healing and resurrection like Anti said, such a thing could only be said for loops after the first one. Or at least, that was the case before he had more information, uncovered loops he didn’t even remember, that wasn’t even considering the loop where they went back to try and get him out personally. They went back without hesitation. They gave up their shot at freedom  _ for him. _

And then there was the original time...when they all died…

When others urged him to leave, when others tried their damnedest to solve just one more puzzle or find just one more key at the cost of their own lives so that others could get out of there-himself included…

When others were shoving him out the door in their place when he should’ve moved…

...But then, how could that even be the same person? Same person was also the one who refused to help him later on, who apparently had the key...

He suddenly realized his grip had tightened so hard on his shirt that his hands were now shaking slightly. Matthias’s wide eyes took in the broken, confused look on Jack’s face, the forced smile completely shattered with turmoil.

Finally Jack licked his lips nervously and spoke, unable to meet Matthias’s eyes.

“The-ah-the video,” he finally spoke hesitantly, his voice about hoarse with nerves. “The one that you...that you find of your brothers getting killed. Th-the memory you had of finding them like that.” He swallowed a forming lump in his throat before continuing. “In the...in the loop it happened, you found the video then, too. You…” Jack pursed his lips and looked away before looking back on ahead, although his eyes were downcast. “You went ballistic. And the others…”

Jack sucked in a breath as he tried to keep his features steady. “It wasn’t too much different from how this loop almost turned out. Ye all thought I was controlling the monsters somehow, getting ye all killed… Ye all thought I was Anti…” Tensing further at the memory, he closed his eyes and took a moment for another steadying breath. “Everyone was so...so scared. And so angry. And so...” His eyes slid open again, his hands absently wringing the fabric of his shirt.

“Everyone decided they couldn’t take any chances. So ye all locked me up in the cell in the basement. I’m sure ye were all planning on coming back for me once ye found the key, but nobody knew about Anti...and then I wasn’t able to heal anyone...or keep the monsters away or…”

Now it was all starting to make sense to Matthias: why their friend was always so paranoid around them, why he found it so hard to trust them. And it was with a start that the blond realized just  _ how much _ horror Jack had likely seen, not just from Anti and the monsters but...even from themselves.

“Anti... _ eventually _ came around and gave me the key. Said he picked it off of Mark’s corpse-or at least what was left of it. He gave me a small headstart to get away...to find a body so I could use the blood and by that point it wasn’t very hard. By that point I think...I’m pretty sure that  _ everyone _ was dead. Anti assured me ye all were, and if ye weren’t, ye were well on yer way there.”

Matthias stared at him in shocked silence for a long while before finally sucking in a deep breath and shaking his head, a frown weighing on his face. “Did you at least try to explain what was going on then-?”

“ _ Yes. _ When people started freaking out, I tried...I tried so hard and by that point  _ nobody was willing to listen. _ Nobody...nobody would ever listen...from the start...from that point…” When Jack heard his voice crack, he suddenly fell into an uncharacteristic silence and swallowed, finally shaking his head fiercely.

“But it’s in the past now. It was just-it was just a shitty loop, everyone’s fine-”

“ _ Are you fine?” _ Matthias asked, staring at Jack intently, bracing himself for another potential breakdown. And in all honesty, he wouldn’t blame him one bit. This was yet another secret chipped out of their suddenly-withdrawn friend, one of many horrors being contained in his memories-or at least whatever was left of it, anyway. How Jack had managed to contain all of this for so long...seriously, it was completely beyond him.

Jack began to nod, stopped, went still for an almost painfully-long moment, then suddenly bit his lip and shook his head.

“God...and you don’t even really remember us outside of these memories you have from inside the house, do you?” Matthias whispered. “At this rate, I don’t even know how… I’m not entirely sure why you haven’t just run out of this place without all of us. After everything we’ve put you through-”

“I-look-” Jack sighed before wearily continuing, “I might not remember enough to open up to ye really, but I do know there’s a reason I’d even be here with ye all in the first place. I remember the original run through this place, back when there was no real magic and there was really no reason to protect me...ye ended up doing it anyway, even when it was at the cost of yer own lives. I generally like to think of myself as a good judge of character, you know. I can tell that ye all are good people regardless of what’s happened-yer all just scared. And even if I was wrong, even if ye weren’t, leaving ye all wouldn’t be the right thing to do anyway, so…”

Matthias continued to stare at Jack for a bit before frowning, his eyes going downcast with guilt. “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “For earlier and...for the past loop. I really screwed things up, huh?”

Jack shook his head. “Anti fucked things up. He  _ meant _ to fuck things up. And believe me, he’s seen enough of everyone and I guess absorbed enough of my own memories to know how to hit each of us where it hurts most.”

“Still-”

“Believe me, I’m actually almost...glad you called me out earlier?” Jack confessed. “In this loop, at least. And that everyone was actually willing to listen this time.” Motioning around with one hand, back towards the group, he continued, “Because if you didn’t, I’d probably still be out there running around on my own as a monster lure and healer. Or dead. I never would’ve opened up. I’d still be all alone and wouldn’t be surrounded and backed up by my friends, I…” He let any remaining points trail for a moment as he frowned, going over it silently in his mind before he finally nodded. “Yeah. Just trust me on this, this is way better than what could have been.”

Matthias eyed him for a long moment, hesitant and unable to discern if Jack was truly okay or just...or just acting like it for his sake. Finally though he relented (although with a frown still on his face) as he replied, “I’m glad that’s how things are going this time around, too. I’m glad you’re actually starting to trust us again and that you’re finally starting to open up.” He leaned forward to finish sterilizing the wounds. Noticing the look on Jack’s face, he assured, “Hold on, almost done.”

It was a minute or two more when he finally set down the cloth and reached into the first aid kit to pull out another bandage, gesturing for Jack to get up and turn around. “Alright, c’mon. Let’s wrap you back up.” Jack nodded, rising to his feet to let Matthias help wrap the bandage around him. “Really hoping these wounds aren’t gonna require stitches,” the Fredrick noted. “They really don’t look very deep. But the way they keep ripping open and bleeding like this…”

“Sorry,” Jack murmured automatically, to which Matthias shook his head.

“It’s not your fault. Nothing to be sorry for,” he countered. “Just try and be more careful, I guess. Alright?”

“Yeah.” The Irishman nodded. “Noted.”

When the wrapping was finally complete, Matthias finished off the bandaging with a firm, well-tied knot, peering around at Jack. “Can you still breath okay?” he asked.

“Yeah-” Jack managed a small grin, just a flicker of his old self. “And don’t go taking that as a sign that you need to make it any tighter.”

“Shoot, read my mind,” Matthias chuckled. When the two were finally finished, they turned back to the group that was more or less completely packed up. “We ready?”

Felix cast a glance towards the others, features set in determination but with far more worry than he cared to show seeping out. “As ready as we’ll ever be, I think,” he replied.

Mark gave a final look around at the place, making sure they weren’t forgetting anything. It was an uneasy, reluctant feeling, finally abandoning the one of the few places they actually felt more or less safe in this house-but they all knew it was something that was going to have to happen sooner or later. Whatever happened out there would likely be a better fate than slowly starving to death up here, at any rate. So finally he nodded, letting his eyes come back around to rest on the others. “Let’s go.”

One by one the group filed out of the safe room, down the secret passage and to the armoire door. Ethan was the last one out, pausing for just a few lingering seconds to look off towards the corner and stare. A slight frown weighing on his face as he eyed the figure of his book’s former owner, his grip tightened just slightly on the book in determination, mouthing two words silently: “ _ Thank you.” _

And with that he quietly closed the trapdoor behind him, heading down fully to join the others.

The plan was to filter out of the secret passage every couple moments or so in small groups, slowly bleeding out into the bedroom. They didn’t want to attract too much attention, after all. If worst came to worst, they still wanted to keep their recently-evacuated safe room as the regroup point if any of them scattered, as a safe place to retreat in case shit hit the fan and they didn’t yet have the key, or if someone ended up severely injured and needed a safe place to be healed up. Hopefully things wouldn’t come to that, hopefully they would actually manage to find the key in this next venture, but one could never be too careful.

Backups for backups.

Hopefully that was going to help keep them all alive.

Slowly they all pooled out into the bedroom, groups coming out one by one until finally everyone stood around silently, exchanging anxious glances. Mark frowned for a moment but then softly cleared his throat, deciding to take the lead as he headed towards the door and waved for the others to follow. The group quietly milled out the door, heading down the corridor and up the stairs, around until they reached the next flight, eventually (finally) making it up to the room with the secret storage room, with the door that had the passcode and led up to the top floor. Tyler crossed the room, glancing back at everyone as Matthias pushed the door closed with a soft  _ creak _ behind them.

“2013, right?” he asked, to which Jack silently nodded in confirmation. Tyler nodded resolutely and turned to face the keypad again, punching in the numbers.

The green digital numbers glowed softly against his hand, reflected in his eyes, and suddenly they gave a tiny flicker and a quick little  _ beep! _ when a click was heard. He glanced back over at the others, carefully watching Jack’s expression and noting the tension in the Irishman.

“That’s it then,” Jack said softly, stepping forward with a couple of the others. “This is it: the top floor. So everyone, just-please,  _ please _ be on your guard from this point on. Even more so than usual. Out of any place where people are almost guaranteed to die, especially as a group…”

“Yeah, no. We’re ready,” Ethan assured, fingers bookmarking a few spots in his book. Glancing back at Cry, he asked, “Cry?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Cry reassured, coming up behind Jack and eyeing the door intensely. “Let’s go-” Twisting around to look back at everyone, he added, “And oh, by the way, guys? I’m with Jack. Let’s all try to remain in one piece, ‘cause I really wanna avoid using this shit as much as possible if we can manage it.”

“Oh believe me, I don’t think any of us have any plans of getting ourselves intentionally borderline killed anytime soon,” Ken reassured.

Tyler watched everyone for a long moment before letting out a deep breath. “Okay,” he finally said, reaching out to grasp the door. “Let’s go.”

The door swung open to reveal a steep, narrow staircase, which the group began to scale one by one. The higher they climbed, the louder the rain on the rooftop seemed to get, although now it had become more of a drone.

“How long is this storm going to go on?” Stephanie whispered, her eyes glancing upwards towards the ceiling.

“It doesn’t sound as loud as it used to,” Bryan noted. “It might be tapering off.”

“Yeah, agreed,” Ken seconded. “It sounds more so steady now, less monsoon.”

The group soon emerged into a white, empty room-well. Almost. The walls, the floor, the ceiling was white, but the twelve numbers painted on the floor in a circle…

A handless clock that was painted in blood.

And then looking at the door across the room, they noticed yet another thing that was painted right above it, also in blood and messy handwriting.

‘Back where it all began.’

“Woah, okay, hello,” Stephanie remarked, a frown flitting across her face.

“Jack?” Matthias asked worriedly as he could hear Felix cursing softly in Swedish nearby. “Do you know how this got here? Is this something new-?”

“No...no, I doubt it…” Matthew noted softly, walking a few paces around the clock with a frown. Looking up to exchange troubled looks with Cry and Tyler, he added, “This is kinda like that big clock we saw downstairs in the annex. Aside from the-you know-creepy writing and stuff.”

“Yeah, except it ain’t nearly as ornate,” Cry pointed out. “It’s just...numbers…” He shook his head. “Probably not really used for the same thing.” His gaze shifted up to the nearby Irishman. “Jack, you said there was a puzzle up here?”

“Yeah,” Jack replied with a nod, watching as the group slowly wandered around the room, being careful not to step on any of the numbers but occasionally drifting close to peer down at them.

“Does it change up every loop?” Matthew asked.

Jack frowned but then nodded. “I mean...more or less?” he replied, his face scrunching up a bit in thought. “At least, given my experience with it.”

“Okay...huh…” Matthew frowned, eyes flickering back up to the words above the door. “And the words above the door?”

“They tend to change up too,” Jack replied. “It’s...sort of like the piano, I guess? A clue gets left as to what the answer to the puzzle might be...that’s really about the only indication we get. Sometimes we can manage to just wing it, get lucky but-” He made a face. “I really don’t recommend we do that with this puzzle. It generates a small shock every time it’s done wrong. It won’t kill us but…”

“Ow. Yeah, okay, let’s try to avoid being the animatronics in Sister Location,” Mark agreed. “I’d really prefer  _ not _ getting a controlled shock. So then…‘back where it all began’?” His eyes lingered on the message above the door for several long moments before flickering back down to the clock on the floor, trying as desperately as everyone else to ignore the fact that it was all scrawled in the rusty red of dried blood. “Back where all  _ what _ began? All of this, maybe?” He paused. “...Maybe the puzzle has the same answer it did in the first loop?”

Felix lifted his eyebrows and gave a helpless shrug as he looked around at everyone. "I mean...it could be, maybe?" he agreed. "I guess we could give it a shot? I don't really wanna get shocked or anything, but..." He made a face at the idea of it, uttering another Swedish curse in a soft tone. "Fuck, this is reminding me a little of Scare Pewdiepie. Except we might  _ actually _ die."

"Well, considering the monsters in this place, it does seem to have the aliens," Mark managed a small smirk to his friend regardless of the situation.

"I guess either way, we're gonna have to start somewhere," Ken noted, scratching the back of his neck as he shifted and glanced over at Jack. "Jack, you remember what the answer to the puzzle was the first time around?"

Jack thought back for a long moment before looking over at Cry. "...Okay, I remember  _ most _ things from previous loops. Some details though..." He motioned to Cry. "But that's why I also started writing some things down. Cry, you should be able to find it in the book if you flip through it. Uh-should be somewhere within the first fifteen to twenty pages, I think. Towards where you start to see the beginning of my handwriting.” He paused before adding, “And English.”

Already the masked man was starting to flip through the book, first in large chunks, then in small, then narrowing it down to flip through the pages. Finally he glanced up at them. "2-11?" At Jack's blank expression, Cry read aloud, "'Year of last disappearance on record.'"

"Oh yeah! That took  _ for fuckin' ever _ to figure out!" Jack exclaimed when it finally clicked. "Most of it was kinda random fumblin' around, especially considering by that point it was only me, Mark, Felix and Ken-we actually got shocked...a  _ lot _ that go-around-" Shaking his head, anxious to dismiss that part of the memory, he continued, "But yeah! 2011!"

"So...okay, how do we do this?" Mark asked, moving to walk around the numbers.

"Okay-uh-first of all the numbers are on panels. Everyone needs to step on a panel to activate the puzzle-which is why we need twelve people or at least twelve weights as substitute-" Jack made a face at some unvoiced memory before continuing, "Then everyone who isn't in the two and eleven positions need to step off or be moved their panels. The door should unlock if we got it right."

"And if we get it wrong, we all get shocked," Mark concluded.

"No, just the people standing on the panels at the time."

"Oh! Oh good, so only a percentage of us gets shocked," Mark exclaimed with mock cheerfulness.

"Okay, well...time to get this thing started?" Stephanie asked, looking around at everyone somewhat anxiously. Cry nodded.

"Let's."

Everyone made their way to the various numbers around the clock, each claiming their own. Ken took the eleven while Tyler moved to take the two. Everyone glanced around at each other somewhat nervously before Jack finally took a breath to steel himself for whatever outcome awaited them and asked, "Alright guys. Ready?"

"Ready," came a chorus from the occupants of the room.

"On three?" Matthew asked. "One...two...three-"

Everyone in unison stepped off the numbers, all except for Ken and Tyler-

And a sudden loud buzz crackled throughout the room, causing dual yelps from the two still on their designated numbers, followed by some stumbling back. As Tyler regained his bearings, he looked over at everyone else. "Okay, clearly that wasn't it!" he announced.

"Yeah, okay, let's try something else," Matthew suggested, making a face mixed with worry, apology and empathy. Looking around at everything again, then back at everyone else, he asked, "Okay. Maybe it's referring to the beginning of this loop? What can be related between that and numbers?"

“Uh…” J-Fred frowned, shrugging. “Addresses...time of arrival…?”

"Fucker better not have my address," Felix growled in irritation, glaring slightly.

"Might not be your starting point per say though," Matthias pointed out. "I mean, there was more than one group, after all. Us...Cry...the Patricks..."

"I don't think it'd be an address," Jack sighed. "We're limited by the numbers on the clock. Sometimes that sort of thing doesn't really add up as well."

"Well...arrival times. Arrival times sound like they'd make plenty of sense," Mark pointed out.

"Yeah, except I don't think anyone really took an exact arrival time," Felix pointed out.

"The hour might be close enough?" Mark suggested. "We got here around...what? Six maybe?"

"And there again we also have multiples," Bryan pointed out.

"I think it really all comes down to just how many times are we really willing to get shocked," Ken pointed out. "Uh-if it's all the same to you, if maybe I could get shocked less than three times throughout this? I'm just saying-maybe we need to keep trading on out."

"I'd suggest that either way," Matthew agreed, cracking a small grin at this. "Yeah, that's fine. Uh-huh. Hm." He frowned, crossing his arms. "I mean, we can maybe try for six o'clock and see where that gets us?" He looked over at Ken, adding, "I'll swap out to test it."

"Won't argue with that," Ken agreed, stepping aside as the group milled around the clock.

"So uh-right. I'm on the six, someone go take the twelve," Matthew instructed.

"We are so gonna get shocked for this," Felix muttered as he headed over to the twelve, shaking his head. Another countdown. Another shock, followed by yelps, stumbling and rather loud Swedish swearing.

"Okay, okay-ow-wrong answer," Matthew said through a wince.

"Seriously wrong fucking answer, goddammit," Felix seconded, patting down his hair a bit as he could feel it standing on end. "Maybe we should try another idea. What else you got?"

"Hm..." Cry murmured softly, frowning as he flipped through the pages of the book some more. His eyes skimmed quickly over the text, a frown suddenly settling over his features as he reached a particular passage. Lingering on it for a moment, frozen, he finally looked up at Jack, then back down at the clock. When he spoke, his voice was quiet. "...Try ten and one."

"What?" Felix asked, looking over at Cry. "Why?"

"You got a reason for that logic?" Mark questioned, peering at the book.

"Just a guess," Cry replied grimly. "A very good guess. Kinda related to the first loop-back to when it all began."

Felix eyed him for a long moment before finally stepping off the number and gesturing over to the clock. "You wanna tag out, in that case?"

"Don't mind if I do," Cry volunteered, stepping up and heading over to the ten. Looking around, he asked, "Anyone mind taking the one for me?"

"I'll take one for the team this time," Jack replied, moving over to stand on the one. “No pun intended.” The group all moved forward to step on all the numbers, putting weight on each of the panels before Cry announced another countdown.

"Alright, everyone ready?" he called over. "Aaand-now."

Everyone stepped off their respective numbers, all except for Jack and Cry.

And in an instant, everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Not gonna lie, I'm quite excited! Things are happening, everyone's out of the safety zone, we only have a few rooms left-but there's still quite the leg left. I'm working on the rest of this as my NaNo project so we'll see how this goes~ But in the meantime! Thanks so much for all the comments, kudos and support! Really helps with getting this stuff written and posted. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	47. Chapter 46

It could’ve been only half a minute or so. It could’ve been as long as an hour. Felix painfully pushed himself up into a sitting position with a groan and an irritated Swedish curse, reaching one hand up for a moment to rub his eyes. “Okay, fucking-” he finally began in English, letting his words fall short for a brief moment as he attempted to pinpoint where it hurt the most and looking down at himself to make sure there weren’t any obvious injuries. Nothing, not from the looks of it, he just ached all over. Accompanied by some tiny added on feeling of...almost hollowness, like a part of him had been ripped away? And some fucking...static or...something...that buzzed very faintly in the back of his head, as if attempting to fill the newly-made void.

“Cry, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t fucking it,” he finally said, allowing his eyes to drift upwards to look around at everyone else, to which they widened upon noticing said companions laid out on the floor around him. Paling significantly, he looked over at the door through which they all came from, then the one they’d been trying to unlock-which was cracked open just a fraction. In no time he was on his feet, ignoring the sudden headrush that threatened to pull him back down and rushing to the door to tug it mostly closed before moving to check on the others. Everyone still seemed to be breathing, thank god, and even better, gradually joining him in varying states of wakefulness.

Blue eyes flickered around at everyone before hurrying over to Jack, kneeling down next to him to be met by another pair of blue eyes but these were extremely bleary.

“Felix?” Jack whispered, thick brows heavy with worry and confusion, disorientation betrayed by his eyes alone.

Felix nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, everyone’s alright, I think, just...what even the fuck,” he reassured.

Jack frowned, confused as his head turned from side to side to get a look around.

“I think we all might’ve got zapped or something, and maybe a little bit too hard. It was enough to knock everyone off their feet, at least-but I think everyone’s coming to pretty quick-”

“Uh-guys?” a voice rang out.

Felix glanced back at Ken, who was sitting almost directly across from the newly-unlocked door and staring up at the numberless clock between the door and the message. Actually-correction, the clock was no longer numberless, not anymore. Instead each number was scrawled in shining red, and in all honesty while Felix didn’t think that was ink or paint _really_ didn’t want to dwell on it.

“The clock changed…” Stephanie murmured aloud, in case no one else had yet caught on or noticed.

“Uh-this is gonna sound a little bit crazy and maybe it’s just me, but-” Matthias winced slightly, looking around at everyone else. “Does anyone else kinda hear static?”

“Static? Like-really faint?” Matthew nodded with a frown, rubbing his ears. “Yeah. I kinda do, actually, although I think it’s starting to go away.”

“Maybe it’s a sort of side-effect of getting zapped too hard,” Tyler suggested. “A sort of ‘ears ringing’ effect, maybe?”

“Maybe,” Ethan murmured. “But even if that’s the case, why do I kinda feel almost a little...uh…”

“Empty?” Mark finished, his face scrunched into an expression of discomfort, confusion and worry. “Yeah, no, I...I actually kinda feel that too.” Looking over at Jack, he added, “Jack?”

Jack shook his head. “Ah-no,” he replied. “No, I don’t remember anything like this ever actually happening before. The feeling, the static...the clock changing. The way it normally plays out is that it _just_ unlocks and then we can all walk right on through. Once we get the puzzle right, that is. Even the big shock at the end, that’s...that’s really different.”

“Assuming it was a shock,” Matthew muttered. Drawing a few stares from the others, he added, “Well I mean-it was enough to cause some aches and pains and knock us all off our feet, but was it _really_ an actual shock? I mean, let’s be real guys: we’re actually starting to figure _magic_ into the equation. All things considered, couldn’t it have been something else entirely?” He shook his head. “Why _is_ this time so different, anyway?”

“No, he’s right,” Cry agreed. “I know the feeling and all but I also don’t feel like I got shocked. Not this time, at least.” Staring up at the clock, he muttered under his breath, “It’s always about the numbers.”

“What?” Bryan asked, frowning. “I get from past stuff but-how this time? What?”

“The newly-created numbers on the clock seem to indicate-look-” Cry swept his arm around the room to gesture to everyone. “Jack? How many people solved the puzzle in past cases? Max?”

“Uh...ten,” Jack replied with a small frown, shifting a bit as his mind worked to catch up.

“How many people are here now? Why _are_ the Patricks actually here, anyway?”

This point actually did draw some stares to both Cry and the Patricks.

“I mean-sure, accident and flooding and shit, yeah, but if we rule that the whole thing wasn’t actually an accident and was really some sort of way of pushing them here-maybe Anti actually _was_ fucking with the GPS somehow or something-”

“The GPS _was_ acting kinda weird when it suddenly decided to turn us down that road,” Stephanie reminded softly, frowning.

“This loop is really different,” Jack admitted quietly, looking troubled. “You think this is all part of Anti’s plan? That we needed twelve people to sort of trigger...something?”

“ _Fuck_ , and we played right into it too,” Felix hissed under his breath, looking around with annoyance and mild paranoia.

“Couldn’t be helped though. I mean, we’ve got twelve people now but that doesn’t mean we aren’t gonna do what we need to as far as trying to get out,” J-Fred reasoned.

“ _If_ the key is even in there,” Jack pointed out. He frowned further. “Which I do definitely hope it is. As dangerous as it is going in there, the last thing we need to be doing is spending even more time in this house checking out the annex again.”

“It would be pretty clever though,” Matthew determined. “If that was some sort of required trigger for...something? Something involved in Anti’s end game maybe? Embedding said trigger, making it some sort of required puzzle for exploring the whole place and getting out of here…”

“I think we all just really need to be on our guard, even more so than we were before,” Mark suggested. “Until we’re actually sure _what_ just happened or what went missing, I think that’s about all we really _can_ do.”

“The static sound is starting to fade off. That’s a relief, at least,” Tyler muttered with a small sigh.

“And the door is...unlocked?” Ken asked, gesturing to the door. Felix nodded.

“Yeah. The door is unlocked. It was kinda open, in fact, when we all started coming to. I shut it; I don’t think it’s gonna lock back up on its own at this point,” Felix reassured them. “Just if that’s the door to where all the monsters are being held, I think that’s the last door we want slightly open while everyone else is kind of outta it.”

“Yeah, no, seriously. Thanks,” Mark agreed, eyeing the door.

“By the way,” Felix spoke up, glancing over at Cry. “One and ten? What was your reasoning on that?”

Cry shifted and frowned. “‘Back to the beginning.’ Anti’s a serious dick.” Feeling the others’ expectancy for more information, he continued, “First loop: ten of us went in-” His eyes settled on Jack. “-Only one of us actually came out. That’s what the numbers are referring to.”

“Fucking-” Felix swore, making a face mixed with anger and disgust.

With an expression that was similarly less-than-pleased, Mark said, “Yeah, okay. Let’s get the hell out of here. If everyone is ready?” He looked around at everyone, who gave their own gestures and murmurs of readiness. “Let’s go.”

The group filed in through the door and into a rather wide hall. The place was dimly lit with the only light flickering, already less than reassuring. As Ethan’s eyes flickered about the place, fingers between pages of his closed book, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise. To their right, the hall widened out further, even darker but inaccessible from the thick iron bars that stood solidly between them and the extra space. From the darker area they could hear movement, shuffling, hisses and growls and whines. A single cast glance at everyone else told him they were all just as unnerved as he was, and as he bit his lip and looked back at the barred-off area, he noticed with a jolt movement and figures, some almost as large as Ryuzuu, some about the size of Abby or smaller, some of them _goddamn floating-_

“All the monsters?” he whispered. Jack nodded.

“All the monsters. Or most of them, assuming there’s likely still a couple wandering around the house.”

“We haven’t even encountered all of these…” Matthias whispered, staring with wide eyes.

“Just keep moving. Unless the door opens, they’re not getting out,” Jack instructed softly, swiftly making his way to the single door at the end of the hall.

“Not seeing Anti around,” Ken remarked in a whisper. “Not yet, anyway.”

“Thank god,” Bryan muttered, eyes sweeping the place as he got an arrow in place on the crossbow regardless. Better safe than sorry, after all. “I’m figuring the cell door’s not opening unless Anti does so himself?”

“Yeah, he’ll need to be here personally to do that. I think. At least in all the previous times I’ve seen it happen,” Jack assured, finally reaching the door at the end of the corridor. His hand reached out to grab the knob but then hesitated. He suddenly turned back to face everyone else. “This could be it. Be ready for anything,” he instructed. He paused for a moment before adding, “If we get the key and get off this floor, make a beeline for the door as fast as you can manage. Do not stop, do not slow down for _anything._ ”

“We won’t if you won’t,” Mark stated, to which Jack hesitated but then nodded.

“Deal,” he murmured. Turning back to the door, he added, “Let’s get the fuck out of here…”

Without waiting another second, he twisted the knob and opened the door, stepping inside and looking around. The room wasn’t well-lit either, bare with white floors and white walls and...and…

“Christ, Jack…” Felix whispered as he stepped in behind Jack, wide eyes gliding over the room. Said room was covered in numbers from one to ten in blood, over and over with a flickering overhead light being the only illumination.

“Yeah, that’s a thing-” Jack murmured lowly as his eyes did a quick sweep of the room, taking a couple of steps inside and subconsciously doing his best to tread around the numbers instead of on them.

“Did you-?”

“It’s not here,” Jack interrupted somewhat bitterly, frowning. “Dammit. The key must be in the last room downstairs-”

“Guys?” Matthias called from the door, back turned to them as he and several of the others stared out into the hallway to keep watch.His voice held a note of tension, immediately drawing the attention of the others.

“What’s up-?” Mark asked, turning around and freezing as the others that had meandered into the room hurried to join them.

“Well, well, well. Looks like the gang’s all here,” Jack’s voice came from out in the hallway. No, not Jack. Definitely not Jack. _Anti._

Jack pushed towards the front of the group, tensing upon seeing the doppelganger standing about fifteen feet away with a wide, toothy grin about ready to split his face in two.

“I must admit, I’m actually a little surprised to see you all in one piece as far as you all are-” Anti began.

“Maybe partially thanks to you,” Matthew interrupted, giving him a challenging look. “Pulling back on the monsters now? Just what are you up to, Anti?”

“A desire to draw out the game, perhaps? After all, this is _such_ a good loop,” Anti countered ambiguously without falter.

“Yeah, well that’s too bad. We’re all getting out of here,” Ethan shot back, glaring as he readied his book. “This is our _last_ loop.”

“Is it really?” Anti asked, tilting his head at a near-sickening angle. “I don’t see a key anywhere. I don’t yet see those hopeful homefree expressions I’ve destroyed so many times before.” Taking a small step forward-which elicited J-Fred to raise his gun and a few of the others their own weapons-he tsked and added, “Ah, but you all _do_ look packed and ready to go.”

“Don’t shoot. Don’t forget he’s still got some kind of connection to Jack,” Stephanie whispered, putting a hand lightly on J-Fred’s upper arm. “Not yet.”

“Yeah, but who knows what he’s about to bring out,” J-Fred whispered back, not taking his glaring eyes off Anti. “Don’t forget that this is supposed to be a pretty common ambush point, after all.”

“Yeah, I know, but-”

“Oh, come now. You all won’t fire on little old me. I think you all are aware of the connection by now, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to end up hurting dear old Jack after all,” Anti interrupted, eyeing their weapons. He tilted his head somewhat as he suddenly pointed out, “Anyway, who said I was pulling back on my pets?” If his grin could get any wider, it just did. “And if I was, what makes you think that I _still am?_ ”

An exchange of tense, worried glances mingled with what bordered on panic flew through the group.

“We need to get out of here. _Now_ ,” Cry whispered lowly as Anti stepped closer to the door on the cell.

“I think I’ve got just the trick,” Ken whispered back. “Felix, lighter?”

“What?” Felix whispered back with a slight frown. But he handed the lighter over anyway as Ken fished through his pockets.

“Keep in mind, Anti’s got an idea of what to expect from us,” Jack whispered. “We’ve done this several times before, after all.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever done _this_ before,” Ken whispered back, withdrawing a couple of small balls with fuses and flicking the lighter on.

“Are those-?!” Bryan started, only to be hushed by Ken, who lit the fuse as Anti meanwhile stuck the key into the lock on the door.

“HEY, ANTI!” Ken suddenly shouted, drawing the doppelganger’s attention. With a sudden pitch the cherry bombs went flying, straight toward the doppelganger.

“Ken-!” Stephanie began, but the throw was thankfully just short enough to stop more so at Anti’s feet as opposed to hitting him outright.

“Go, GO!”

The first bomb suddenly went off with a loud pop and a flash of light, smoke flying everywhere. Everyone broke into a run, rushing past and out the door, into the clock room and down the stairs as they could hear the second pop go off, slamming doors shut behind them.

“Downstairs still?” Matthew asked as they charged through the house.

“Downstairs, gogogo!” Jack confirmed, the group soon making it to the first floor and rushing to the back rooms. By this point Mark was pausing to lock doors behind them, one by one as they passed through each.

The group finally made it to the room with the ladder to the annex, Jack stopping to look around at everyone. “Alright, so…” he began, mind racing to reconfigure their plans. As he did, Felix looked over at Ken.

“ _Körsbärsbomber?_ ” he asked in disbelief.

Ken blinked. “Uh, what?” he asked, eyebrows raising.

“Fuck-” Felix made a face at his slip. “What’s the English word for it-?”

“I heard bomb-” Bryan noted, exchanging a look at Felix. “You mean the stuff he threw?” He turned back to Ken. “Yeah, cherry bombs, _what?_ Ken, where did you even _get those?_ ”

“There was a small pile of them on one of the beds up in our last safe room,” Ken pointed out. “I figured Anti probably wouldn’t expect it because we never actually found the safe room in any of the previous loops. In which case, first time any of us would’ve ever found and used them.”

“Oh-” Bryan paused, considered this, then nodded. “Good plan.”

“Also, here,” Ken said, passing the lighter back over to Felix. “I know you’re gonna need this for Flamey.”

“Oh. Hey. Yeah. And hey man, lemme know next time you need it-I’m not opposed to blowing this place the fuck up in any way, shape or form,” Felix replied, taking the lighter. Turning back to the others, he asked, “So then. Now what’s the plan?”

“Key’s gotta be downstairs in the final room. There’s pretty much no other place it _could_ be at this point, unless we missed it in any of the previous,” Jack surmised.

“But it definitely doesn’t look to be in that one room at all,” Mark remarked. He let out a sigh and shook his head. “Alright, so I guess we’re all going down then?”

“That’d be dangerous as fuck,” Jack pointed out.

“Jack-”

“No, he’s right,” Tyler interrupted. As eyes turned on him, he continued, “As far as we know, the annex has only one way in and one way out, and that’s the ladder. If we all go down there, it’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel for them if we try to escape. We could very well end up under seige.”

“Not to mention we don’t actually know if there’s anything down there already,” Ethan pointed out.

“Yeah, much as I hate to say, he’s right,” Matthew agreed with a wince. “Some of us are gonna have to stay up here.”

“I don’t really like it, but-” Felix frowned. “So some of us down there, some of us staking it out up here then?”

“And then worst comes to worst, you guys can give a warning shout for us so we can all get back up and make it to the cell,” Matthew added.

“We can go down with the same crew as before then, I guess,” Jack suggested. “Since we know the pattern for this loop fairly well by now. We’re just going to need a fifth person.”

“I’ll go,” Stephanie jumped in, looking around at everyone. “I don’t have a very good weapon anyway, so I’ll probably be better off helping with the puzzles.”

“Hopefully there won’t be anything down there already,” Matthew muttered worriedly.

“Well, the good news is that I’m a part of the original crew so at least you’ll have a healer with you in case things go to shit,” Cry pointed out. “Which reminds me.” Turning to the others, he added, “Also call down if I’m needed up here for any reason. If that happens, I’ll head on up here as fast as I can.”

“You know we will,” Felix agreed.

Matthew looked down the ladder. “Well,” he said. “Who wants to go down into the creepy annex first?”

“I will,” Tyler volunteered, moving to get onto the ladder. Mark frowned, stepping forward.

“Be careful,” he advised solemnly. His eyes then flickered up to look around at everyone else in the downstairs group. “That goes for all of you guys.”

“You guys too,” Cry countered. “Don’t make me come back up here! At least, not before we find the key.”

“We’ll try not to,” J-Fred assured, cracking a small grin that he hoped was more reassuring than he felt.

Tyler moved to head down the ladder, followed soon after by Cry. As no sounds of ambush followed, Jack moved to follow the two down, followed by Matthew and then finally Stephanie. As the downstairs group was plunged into darkness, Stephanie pulled out her phone and shined it around the basement.

“There any light down here…?” she questioned, to which Jack nodded.

“Ah-yeah-hang on,” he replied, moving to a corner of the room to flip up the light switch. The light still wasn’t great, but it was certainly better than nothing, the fluorescent glow shining from above with a faint hum. A faint musty haze still hung in the air, not too thick but noticeable.

“This fog down here…?” Stephanie began, looking curiously over at the others. Matthew shrugged.

“Jack said it wasn’t actually dangerous,” he replied. “At least in past loops?”

Jack nodded in affirmation. “Yeah, it’s safe enough, I think.” Moving down the hall, he added, “So if someone can explain the puzzle and the tune we need to get down?”

“You’re not?”

“I’m doing a sweep of the place before we get started on this whole thing,” Jack countered. “The last thing we need is a monster rushing at us out of nowhere mid-puzzle.”

“Good idea,” Tyler noted, looking over at Matthew. “Matt, you wanna do the explaining?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Matthew agreed, moving to follow the others but hanging back a bit to remain in the same room as the others wandered.

“Let’s get this thing done as quickly as possible,” Cry suggested.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Jack muttered, quickening his pace just a bit.

The sweep of the first room, the corridor, the extra room with the single switch were done swiftly enough-all were found empty. With each room the lightswitches were flicked up and chains were pulled, making sure to turn on every light they could manage, to illuminate every shadow that a monster could potentially be hiding.  As they entered into the annex library with the multiple switches, the Patricks hung back by the door, talking amongst themselves as Cry, Tyler and Jack around, checking around each of the bookshelves.

“Anything?” Tyler asked, shooting a glance over at the other two as he gripped his katana.

Jack shook his head. “No, nothing,” he replied, drifting towards the lab as the door remained open from their last venture. Noticing this, Cry hurried to catch up with him, moving up alongside him and peering inside through the slant of light that came through the doorway of the library.

“Not sure there’s actual electric lighting in here,” he muttered as he looked around, feeling along the sides of the door.

“That would make sense. To be honest, this area actually looks like it could be older than the rest of the house,” Tyler agreed, moving to join them.

Stephanie paused for a moment in her conversation with Matthew, leaning and craning just a bit to peer between a couple of the bookcases as best she could at an angle. “Is that the lab?” she called over.

Tyler nodded, glancing back towards the couple. “Yeah, this is it,” he called back. In a softer, more distracted voice as he turned back to the dark doorway, he added, “This is the lab.” He pulled out his phone, flipping the flashlight on. “Well. It may not have light but it still needs to be checked.”

Jack glanced over at Tyler. “Want me to hold onto the light?” he asked.

Tyler nodded, passing the phone over to Jack. “Probably better to have two free hands,” he agreed. He waited until Jack had the light pointed inside the room before stepping cautiously inside, gripping the katana with both hands now, eyes sweeping the area. “Shine it around a bit, not too fast-maybe we can find an actual electric light somewhere.”

Jack nodded, moving to shine the light around as the nerves weighed on his features. Cry moved inside as well, sticking to the other edge of the light, feeling around here and there. His hands glided across one of the tables, making a small, startled noise of disgust as his hand passed through what must’ve been a cobweb.

“Gosh...dangit…” he whispered, reaching down to swipe the cobweb off on his pants. Glancing up and down the table for a moment as Jack kept the flashlight on it, his eyes suddenly lit up, unseen by the mask but audible from the next noise he made. “Ah! Hey. Guys.” He held up what looked like a box of old matches. “Bingo.”

“There are plenty of candles around here…” Tyler muttered, looking around as Cry attempted to strike a match. The first one broke, then the second-the matches were so old they were likely partly rotted-but then the third one sparked to life, illuminating the surrounding inch or two with a tiny glow. Cry immediately took advantage of the new source of light, moving from candle to candle to spread the flame. It wasn’t long before the darkness was at least partly lifted in the room, although the shadows continued to bare down heavily.

“Well, that’s better than nothing, at least,” Jack muttered, moving from shadow to shadow to shine the light in.

“So haven’t heard anything, haven’t seen anything…” Tyler muttered hopefully.

“Yeah, this seems pretty promising,” Cry agreed.

“Now all we have to worry about at the moment is the upstairs,” Jack muttered, worried eyes flickering upwards.

“Let’s just stay positive,” Cry remarked, looking over at the others. A hopeful grin flickered across his face, and although not actually seen by anyone else, the emotion could be heard in his voice. “Now. Let’s go play ourselves a tune.”

“And get the hell out of here, yeah,” Tyler agreed, moving to turn back out of the lab and head back over into the annex library. As he headed for the center of the room to turn and head in the way of the Patricks, he announced as loud as he dared, “All’s clear.”

“Oh, thank god,” Matthew muttered. He looked over at Stephanie. “Alright, so you got the thing memorized now?”

Stephanie nodded, drawing in a breath. “Yeah,” she replied. “I think so. We might have to do it once or twice with the actual puzzle, but I think we have this now.” She looked over at Jack. “I’ll take the switch in the other room?”

Jack made a slight face at the idea that she was going to be out of sight of everyone else. “Are you sure? I mean-you’re not going to be here with the others if you do-”

“Jack, the others are upstairs, the area down here is clear-you guys saw for yourself,” Stephanie reminded reassuringly. “Besides, the room is literally only five feet down the hall from the door to the library. I think I’ll be fine.” She looked around at the others, adding, “So I guess I’ll call when I’m about to start the thing?”

“Sounds good,” Tyler replied, moving to the switch he was at originally. The other two followed suit, but not before a few quick muttered words were exchanged between the Patricks-a few of those words being further reassurance from Stephanie. Jack bit his lip, moving to the switch closest to the door. He was the fastest runner after all, he was still pretty sure of that. If anything came out...well...he was only armed with a knife now but still. If anything happened…

And soon Stephanie was out of their sights, her footsteps heading down the corridor and into the next room over. After a moment they could hear her call.

“Is everybody ready?”

The response was pretty much a unanimous ‘yes’, so Jack twisted around once more to call back, “Yeah, everything’s ready.”

“Okay, starting this thing up in three...two…”

Noises suddenly came from each of the levers, like a giant game of Simon Says. Everyone listened, seeming to silently count the number of beats before their next interaction with the lever. First try, second try, third try-

Fourth try did it.

The group suddenly heard a click coming from the door behind Matthew, the Patrick twisting around with a brightening look. “Alright!” he exclaimed, grinning triumphantly before looking back over at the others.

“It worked?” Cry asked, stepping over to Matthew to peer at the door, soon joined by Tyler.

“I think so, yeah,” Matthew replied, moving to quickly step away from the lever and door to head back over to the corridor. “Hey Steph, it worked!”

“It did?” Stephanie emerged from the corridor and back into the annex library, practically beaming with relief and triumph. Looking over at the others trying the knob, her grin widened a little bit when she saw it twist and the door actually push open slightly. “Hey, yeah, it did!”

“Thank god…” Jack sighed, moving to head over to the door with the others. Even now though, he couldn’t keep the worry off his features. What if this didn’t work out after all?

What if the key wasn’t there?

They didn’t exactly have a backup plan or anything, so…

What would they do then?

But instead of voicing his concerns, he swallowed them into silence, stepping forward to peer into the darkness of the room.

“So uh-” He stopped a second to clear his throat, pulling the door open the rest of the way and reaching in tentatively to flip the switch next to the door. The light buzzed on to show a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, a bookshelf. “This room really isn’t very big. Uh-”

Stephanie stepped inside to look around, eyes taking in everything. True enough, there wasn’t actually all that much to see in the room-the area itself was more cramped than a spacious walk-in closet. “I guess we poke around the desk,” she suggested. “Poke around the bookcase.”

Cry nodded, stepping inside as well. “Yeah,” he agreed, scooting a bit to head over to the bookcase. “Let’s do that. I take bookcase and I guess-”

A sudden thud was heard upstairs, followed by a few others, snapping everyone’s attention upwards as the heavy noises were followed soon after by shouts. The group exchanged looks as Tyler cursed slightly, the first to be on the move.

“ _Shit!”_ he whispered, racing through the annex library and down the corridor.

Matthew paused for only a second, only enough time to look back at the others. “Steph, Jack, you guys try and find the key,” he instructed.

“What? Fuck that, no-!” Jack objected.

“No. No way, that wasn’t the plan! Besides, there is no way I'm letting you head up there without me-!” Stephanie argued at the same time.

“ _Guys!_ ” Matthew frowned, looking from one to the other before shaking his head firmly, adjusting the grip on his metal pipe. “We don’t entirely know what’s up there and you two are probably some of the least armed out of all of us. It’s safer down here than up there. And besides that, more importantly, we need to find that key, _fast._ We don’t have to win or even _finish_ this battle, we just need that key upstairs so we can all get out of here as fast as possible. _Can you guys do that for us?”_

Jack and Stephanie frowned, exchanging looks before the two finally gave their own reluctant, conceding responses.

“Fine.”

“I guess.”

“ _Thank you._ ” Matthew hesitated for just a moment more as he looked from one to the other finally nodding in approval and stepping out of the doorway. “We’ll try and get this wrapped up as quickly and safely as possible. Just-hurry guys. And good luck.” The theorist bolted for the door, across the annex library and into the corridor and called back, “We’re gonna need a healer up there, Cry! You coming?”

“What? Yeah! Yeah dawg, I’m coming!” Cry called back, moving to hurry. But the door to the wardrobe he was standing next to suddenly burst open, hitting him hard and sending him staggering back into the desk across from it before he toppled to the floor.

Jack whipped around to look over at Cry. “Cry!” He then turned back to the wardrobe, eyes wide as Stephanie meanwhile rushed to Cry’s side. “ _Shit-!”_

He took a small step back as Steve stepped out, tilting its head one way and then the other as if cracking its long neck, letting out a low hiss noise.

“Guys-!”

Cry winced and looked up, eyes widening. “Shit-!” he began.

Stephanie was also staring up at the creature, frozen for a brief moment before she quickly rose and moved to help Cry up. “Go, GO!” she exclaimed, moving to shoo Cry out of the room. She grabbed Jack’s arm to rush right out on Cry’s heels and pull the Irishman with her. “C’mon-!”

Jack felt the impact before he saw it, getting shoved hard into the desk Cry was just against and ripped from Stephanie’s grip, bracing himself against it as the wind was knocked out of him, desperate to to maintain balance. Stealing a glance over at Stephanie, he shouted, “Nevermind, just go! Hurry!”

“Jack-!”

Steve suddenly rounded on the woman, reaching out and grabbing her by the throat, moving to lift her up off the ground. Jack’s eyes widened even more.

“STEPH NO!” he exclaimed, rushing forward to try and stab the monster in the back. The blade hit its mark, plunging into gray flesh and eliciting a shriek from the monster, to which Steve flung Stephanie across the room like a rag doll and turned on Jack. The Irishman pulled the blade out, taking a small step back. “ _Shit-!_ ”

Cry meanwhile rushed to Stephanie’s side, checking her over. “Steph, you okay?”

“Ah-yeah, I’m fine, just give me a minute-” Stephanie began, clearly suppressing the pain in her voice as much as possible as she attempted to sit up and right herself again. Her head was bleeding, her arm was twisted at an odd angle- “Nevermind about me, just go help Jack.”

Cry looked up towards Steve, nodding and pushing himself to his feet, looking around. Go help Jack. Go help Jack, that was all fine and good but how the fuck was he actually supposed to do that when he was healer right now? He wasn’t exactly armed; he gave his weapon off to Jack. It was a moment of helpless horror as he realized that this was likely the struggle Jack endured over and over again for so long. Well-okay, think fast. Other than healing, what else did Jack do? Glancing down at his book, he wondered if he tried acting as a lure, would they actually bite and follow him?  
“Uh-um-” Cry looked around, seizing a book from a nearby bookshelf. Pulling back his arm, he flung the book at Steve, then immediately moved to grab another. “Hey! You!” He chucked another book at the monster, meanwhile keeping Jack’s book firmly in his other hand.

The monster whipped around to face him, stepping out of the room although still somewhat blocking the doorway to the tiny room.

“Yeah you!” As the monster took another step forward, Cry took a slight step back, mind racing. Alright, now he had its attention. Now what?! “So that’s how you’re gonna play things? Three people here and you’re gonna do the stupid coward thing by picking off each of us one by one in a tiny room?”

Oh geez what was he saying. What was he _even_ saying anymore, he was just trying to throw out some words to maintain its attention as he saw a flash of green behind the monster moving. The monster suddenly let out another shriek as Jack got it in the back once again, this time whipping around to shove Jack back into the room even harder, knife still sticking out of its back. He couldn’t even see Jack anymore, just heard the sound of the impact and could tell that it had to have been hard. The monster then turned swiftly back to him and immediately bolted across the room, charging at him.

He didn’t even have the opportunity to react.

The force hit him before he could even get the chance to brace himself.

He flew back into the wall, book flying from his hands as he felt something sharp embed itself into his stomach, the wind being knocked out of him. After what seemed like moments of blur and black and then a struggle to figure out what even the fuck just happened, he looked down, noticing the blood that was already starting to stain his shirt. “Oh fuck, _fuck-!”_

At this point Stephanie pushed herself up to her feet although her arm hung a bit funny, rushing over to Cry to help him up. “C’mon, c’mon-!” she urged, moving to get Cry to the room where the switch was. A locked door, what they needed was a locked door.

“But Jack-!” Cry began.

“I get the feeling Anti’s not gonna want Jack dead in this loop. Besides, he’s fast, he’ll join us soon enough.” _She hoped._ “Don’t worry, I’ll help him but you-oh god-”

Cry felt slight nausea mingling with his adrenaline as he was dragged along. “Is it really that bad?”

Stephanie didn’t answer. Instead she helped him down the hall as the monster stalked after them, hurrying practically shoving Cry into the room as she whirled around to try and shove the door shut. The monster caught the door just in time, shoving it hard and sending the woman staggering back as it stepped inside the room. Stephanie fumbled as best she could one-handed with readying her knife as she stepped back, the monster backing her towards the corner.

“Cry, hurry up and heal yourself!” she called over as her eyes remained on the monster. Cry nodded and scooted back to the other end of the room, hurrying to get the book open and the spell started. But Steve noticed, jerking its head towards him with a hiss before suddenly rounding on him. Stephanie’s eyes widened. “No-no-no-no-no-! Cry, lookout!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It has been...way too long and I apologize, no excuses. So let me just go ahead and say Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year-all that jazz and drop a bit of good news: first off, I won Nano! So that's a thing. But even more importantly, I've been writing. Writing like a mofo and I've got just about everything finished on my end, to the point of just writing epilogue at this point. So that's awesome, and I can safely say that we're close to the beginning of the end! Shit's gonna get real within the next few chapters so just-grab onto something and hang on tight. But in the meantime! Thanks so much for all the comments, kudos and support! Really helps with getting this stuff written and posted. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	48. Chapter 47

Jack wasn’t entirely sure how long he’d been out when he stirred, sitting up with a groan and a throbbing head. “Fuckin’-” He whispered, looking around. Realizing he didn’t hear a sound, he blinked and looking around. Upon noticing the desolate emptiness of the surrounding area, his eyes widened. “Cry?” he called out softly. “Steph?” In spite of the pain pulsing through his head, he took no time moving to his feet and wavered for a moment, the world spinning. He grimaced. “ _ Fuck-! _ ”

Stumbling out of the tiny room, he hurried out into the annex library as he looked around in a building panic. “Cry? Steph!”

No answer. No sound, no movement coming from the secret room, no signs of life coming from really anywhere. He made his way into the hall, ears straining in the silence. Fuck, he didn’t even hear the monster. Oh god. Oh god this all just went horrifically wrong real fast-

And then as he neared the other room that the single switch was in, he heard it. Breathing, although labored and somewhat gurgled. Oh no, oh no, oh no, he  _ recognized those sounds _ . Picking up his speed and nearly toppling as he did, he rushed into the room to see Cry lying in one corner, beaten and bloody-almost as bad as he found him in the first loop-and Stephanie in another corner, very clearly unconscious with limbs twisted at odd angles.

“Nonononono-” Jack whispered, looking from one unconscious friend to another before immediately snapping into action. This wasn’t going to be a thing. Not again, not ever again. He didn’t  _ care _ what the price or consequence was anymore, he wasn’t about to let them die. He shut the door behind them and locked it, then immediately began searching the room. It  _ had _ to be near Cry, it  _ had _ to be. And it only took a few moments before he finally found it.

He lifted the book that was a few feet away from Cry’s bloody hand, flicking the scab off his own finger and pushing a bit of blood out to reverse the hands on the clock in the book. Lifting the spell off the inner cover and expanding it out into a bubble, he hurried over to Cry and immediately worked to heal him, ignoring the fact that he was definitely now aware of it, that he could  _ feel _ pieces of his memories slipping away. It was like reaching for mist that dispersed in the closing of a grasping fist, ripped away and sucked off into a void. He watched Cry gasping for air, struggling at first but then a lot more decent. He made sure to turn the masked man a bit to give him the benefit of gravity for any blood that might have built up in his throat and mouth and wasn’t receding, removing the mask to further enable him to cough up whenever he had to. He watched as some of the blood sucked its way back into the wounds and began to repair itself rapidfire, as if the sinew and muscle and tissue had never been torn through at all.

When Cry was finally all healed up, he helped position Cry somewhat to further aid his recovery before getting up and heading over to Stephanie, kneeling down next to her and taking into account her injuries. A broken arm,  _ definitely _ a broken leg-the latter a certain death sentence, there would be no getting away from anything in this house with limbs in that condition. As he reached down and worked on healing her, it was at about this point he heard movement outside the door and tensed, staying silent and still as he listened. He didn’t actually check the whole area down here, after all. He didn’t know if Steve was still here or-

Probably.

It was a likely possibility unless Steve had gone up the ladder and added to whatever hell was going on upstairs. And the fact that nobody from that was down here yet, the fact that now there definitely wasn’t a healer who’d come up and helped him, that could very well mean-

Oh god, try not to think about it.

But no, the movement he heard outside the door soon turned into a knock followed by Matthew’s voice.

“Steph?”

Alert blue eyes turned upwards and then towards the door.

“Steph, Jack, Cry, are you guys in there?”

Jack let out a sigh of relief before he called, “Yeah-yeah, just a minute!” Hearing a pained sound from Stephanie, he looked back down at her. “Hang in there, Steph…”

“Guys, what’s going on in there? What happened-?”

Matthew’s voice was soon joined by Felix’s. “Guys? What the hell man, are you guys okay?”

Jack winced a bit. “No. No, but we’re getting there,” he replied.

“Can somebody unlock the door?” Felix asked.

Jack hesitated before replying, “Yeah, in just a moment. How is everyone else upstairs?”

“We kinda need a healer something bad. Ethan is…” Felix let the response hang before continuing, “Is Cry in there?”

“He is but he’s out. Hold on, I’ll get the door opened in just a-” Jack flinched and drew back when Stephanie’s eyes flew open and she let out a shriek, the bones grinding back together and sealing back.

Hard knocking was heard on the door again. “Steph? What’s going on in there?”

“Did you guys make sure the area was clear?” Jack replied evasively. “Steve’s down here guys, don’t let him ambush you.”

Vaguely through the door Jack could hear Felix. “He is?  _ Helvete _ -” The curse was followed by footsteps and a distant call to where he presumed was upstairs.

“Where is everybody upstairs now?”

“Still around the hatch, mostly. We’re thinking about relocating over to the cell,” Matthew explained. After a beat he continued, “But some of us-I-I don’t think are in good enough condition to move, so-”

“Shit,” Jack swore quietly.

“Jack?” Stephanie mumbled, letting out a small, pained noise.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost done,” Jack assured.

“Matthew-”

“He’s fine, he’s just outside.”

“You shouldn’t...you’re using-”

“I know. Shhh.”

Finally Jack stood up, the spell still glowing around his hand as he used his other to unlock the door and pull it open. He immediately stepped aside to let Matthew rush in, peering out the door-first to the left then to the right.

“Felix go back upstairs?” Jack asked.

“Yeah,” Matthew replied, kneeling at Stephanie’s side. “Steph, you okay?”

“Kinda feel like I got hit by a truck, but…”

“Steve ambushed us,” Jack explained, sparing a moment to look back at the others. It was at this point he noticed a few bloody scratches on Matthew-nothing life-threatening but certainly not ideal. “Went after Cry and Steph, knocked me out in the meantime. I _just_ came to and found...all this…” Matthew meanwhile checked Stephanie over as Jack continued, “Stephanie’s injuries weren’t life-threatening, but she did have a few broken limbs...so…”

“Christ…” Matthew whispered, running a hand back through his hair. “And Cry?”

“I’m pretty sure Cry  _ was _ on death’s door when I found him. He should be alright now, but he’s still out.” As Matthew checked the two over, Jack added, “We need to get these two upstairs to the cell and I need to heal up the others.”

“You shouldn’t be healing anyone at all, especially now that there’s more people here,” Stephanie countered. “Let someone else take that up.”

Jack shook his head. “I don’t think it really matters at this point. I’ve already got the spell fired up, may as well use it while it’s still going.”

“I am so sorry, you guys. I shouldn’t have left you all alone down here,” Matthew muttered, a frown weighing on his face. Jack shook his head.

“We made the best we could out of a bad situation. And anyway, it sounds a bit like they needed the extra help upstairs.” Jack frowned, adding, “Who was it, by the way? Which of the monsters attacked?”

“Ryuzuu,” Matthew replied as the three listened to Felix come back down with Matthias and J-Fred. As the three of them appeared in the doorway, it was clear they all looked worse for wear as well but again, nothing all too life-threatening. Painful, very much so, but overall nothing too terribly serious. “And then Philippe and Anti came to join them and just…”

“Fucking hell, man,” Jack whispered, watching as the group moved to fan out throughout the annex.

“Did you guys at least manage to find the key?” Matthew asked.

Stephanie shook her head. “We didn’t really get the chance to look,” she replied. “We still need to give the room a thorough check.”

“Where even was Steve?” Matthew asked.

“Ah-right-” Jack shifted a bit to peer down the hall, calling to the others, “Be careful of the wardrobe in the tiny room! That’s where Steve popped out of.”

“How in the world did it even get all the way down here?” Matthew wondered, giving Jack a questioning look. Jack winced.

“It’s not the first time a monster’s gotten down here but I don’t really know the answer to that either. I don’t ever see them going down the ladders-maybe they just jump down here but…” He frowned and shook his head. “I mean, maybe there’s another passageway down here or something. After we opened up that one lab area, I’d be willing to believe it.”

Felix headed back over, shaking his head. “We’re not seeing Steve anywhere,” he replied.

“Not sure if that’s a relief or not,” Jack muttered. The Swede frowned upon seeing the glow around Jack’s hand.

“Dammit Jack, we  _ told _ you not to go using magic from the book again-”

“It was that or dead friends, which would you prefer?” Jack replied roughly. He then shook his head. “I’m gonna head on upstairs and get the others healed up. Let’s just-let’s  _ try and find the key _ and then once we’re out, we won’t need to use the book anymore.”

Felix looked ready to argue but then sighed and shook his head in frustration, moving to check on Cry after calling over to the Fredrick brothers to keep an eye out for the key as well as Steve. Jack meanwhile maneuvered out of the room and headed over to the ladder, making his way up to the first floor. Emerging up through the hole and looking around, his eyes widened. The place looked like it’d been hit by a tornado. Blood was everywhere, it hadn’t been quite this bad in most loops since-

Jack swallowed the forming lump in his throat and shook his head, crawling the rest of the way out and pushing himself to his feet. A quick sweep of the room showed him Mark from behind and Tyler across from him not far off, both of them kneeled over Ethan’s body. Tyler with his arm and shoulder at a weird angle, Mark leaning forward with the remains of a shirt from one of the backpacks and pressing it down onto Ethan’s unconscious body. Bryan was sitting nearby with a busted-up leg, back to the wall, Ken was nowhere in sight. Finally the Irishman decided to speak up.

“Where’s Ken?” he inquired worriedly, drawing the attention of the others for the first time.

“Jack?” Bryan asked, looking over at him and blinking with surprise.

Mark looked back at him with wide eyes that bordered on frantic, desperate to save their blue-haired friend. “Jack-” he began, but then his eyes fell on the glow in Jack’s hand. “You’re-but Cry-”

“Cry’s out of it right now; Steve knocked him right the fuck out, same as all the rest of us,” Jack replied, moving to quickly cross the room and kneel down next to Mark. He stared at Ethan for just a moment, taking in all the damage with a frown. He couldn’t even see the spot where Mark was pressing down but the shirt was completely soaked through with blood and then there was a part of Ethan’s throat that was bleeding, as if something or someone had appeared behind him and tried to cut it but only managed about partway. Letting out an evening breath, he said, “Mark, I’m going to need to see the other injury.” He then shook his head. “But-keep the shirt over it for right now. Lemme get his throat first.”

As he reached over to place his hand over the cut on Ethan’s throat, he continued, “We should probably be ready to turn him, make sure nothing gets caught up in his throat. No point in saving him from all this only to have him choke and suffocate on whatever once he’s getting better.”

Tyler frowned and nodded, placing a hand on Ethan’s shoulder in preparation. “Yeah, okay. Just let us know when,” he requested in a grim quietness.

“Again, where’s Ken?” Jack asked as he did his best to ignore the feeling of things starting to slip from his mind even faster, trying to keep himself distracted.

“He uh-” Mark swallowed, trying to keep himself steady and as somewhat calm as he could manage in the current situation. “He’s fine, he just-he went back to the room with the cell to make sure it was clear. I know it’s dangerous as all hell but-I mean-we should probably move everyone somewhere, especially if there’s going to be some people unconscious-”

“Ye all should’ve just made a run for it to begin with,” Jack muttered, frowning.

“We weren’t about to let a monster or two jump down in there with you guys,” Mark replied stubbornly. After a moment he added, “Although from what I understand, it wouldn’t have really mattered too much anyway.”

“Yeah, fuckin’ Steve was down there,” Jack replied. His eyes drifted over towards the door to the corridor that led out to the dojo. It was completely ripped off its hinges. “To be honest, I’m actually pretty surprised Ryuzuu managed to get all the way in here.”

“Yeah, I can’t say it was something we were really expecting,” Mark agreed. “We probably should’ve, but…” He shook his head. “Anyway.”

“Yeah, anyway.”

Jack finally pulled his hand away from Ethan’s throat to show bloodied but healed up flesh, letting out a sigh of relief when he heard Ethan coughing hoarsely as opposed to the sick gurgling that had been coming from his throat otherwise. “C’mon, turn his head.”

Tyler winced a bit at his own movement but reached forward to turn Ethan’s head. “We can turn him full-body once we get the other major wound healed up.”

“Yeah, good call.” Jack’s eyes flashed up at Mark. “Mark? I need for you to move the shirt; we need to get the other major wound healed.”

Mark nodded. “Yeah. Yeah,” he agreed. He waited until Jack’s hand was hovering close to the wound. “You ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Mark moved the shirt and Jack sucked in a breath at the sight. There was a large hole in the younger man’s torso; he was bleeding out fast. In all honesty Jack was shocked Ethan was still even alive at this point. He wasted no time shifting his hand over the wound and speed-healing the hole, watching as all blood was sucked back into the injury, all ripped-through veins and arteries reconnected and as the flesh and tissue all sealed back up. It was at this point Ethan started gasping for breath, followed by sounds of pain. Mark winced, a hand going to the blunette’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Ethan. It’s going to be okay,” he reassured, although his voice was betrayed by just the thinnest layer of uncertainty. Glancing up at Jack he added, “Jack?”

“If he’s survived this long then he’s going to survive getting healed up, yeah,” Jack replied. He winced. “It’s just going to hurt like fuck.”

And suddenly it was like the wound wasn’t even there at all. Ethan was coughing hard, to which Tyler quickly grabbed Ethan’s shoulder and with Mark’s help, pulled him onto his side.

“We need to get everyone to decent cover,” Tyler recommended, glancing up at Jack and Mark.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Mark replied, looking over as Ken returned.

“All’s clear. Let’s get everyone moved-” Surprise flashed in the bearded man’s eyes upon seeing Jack. “Jack-you’re not supposed to-where’s Cry?”

“Downstairs recovering. Nevermind it, I’ve heard it all before already,” the Irishman dismissed as he pushed himself to his feet and made his way over to Bryan. Looking up at the man, he asked, “He fucked up your leg, huh?”

“Yeah; moving’s a little bit difficult,” Bryan replied with a wince as he tried shifting a little bit, then stopped. Jack frowned.

“Alright. Brace yourself; this is gonna hurt,” Jack warned as he moved the spell over to Bryan’s leg. Bryan shifted a little bit again and grunted, gritting his teeth as his leg began to straighten, shift and snap back into place, then sucked a sharp breath in through his teeth.

“How’s Ethan?” he asked, voice heavy with pain as he watched Ken head over to the blunette’s side to join the others.

“He’ll live,” Jack reassured quietly. “I think everybody’s gonna live-for right now anyway. But we’d better find that key real fast because our luck is going to run out sooner than later.”

“Luck or not. Doesn’t matter. We’re getting out of this house one way or another,” Bryan replied, offering a small, wry grin.

Felix meanwhile climbed out of the hole, looking around at everyone. “Everyone alright?” he asked.

Mark nodded. “Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, I…” He nodded once more in his own affirmation. “I think so. Ethan’s doing a lot better at this point, at any rate.”

“Thank god,” Felix sighed, watching as Jack stood from Bryan’s side and headed over to Tyler. Making his way over to Ken, he asked, “So hey, what’s the status with the cell?”

“Checked it out. It’s all clear,” Ken replied.

“Good.” Felix nodded. “It could be a bit before Cry and Ethan are awake again. We should get them somewhere safe while they recover.” Making a face, he added, “We need to figure out how to get Cry back up here, for that matter.”

Ken raised his eyebrows. “And then?”

Felix couldn’t even keep the grin off his face as he held up a key. “And then we get out, my bros.”

Those words drew everyone’s attention. Jack stared with wide eyes. “Are you serious?” he whispered.

“I mean, we’ll need you to confirm and if you can’t, we’ll need to try it on the lock, but…” Felix began.

Jack stared for a long moment before looking back at Tyler as he heard a sharp hiss of pain coming from the man. “Yeah. Yeah, I will in just a minute,” he replied. His mind almost struggling to process this rare piece of good news, finally daring to hope just this one time in a long time he added, “Yeah. Okay. Let’s figure out how to get Cry up here in the meantime and get everyone to safety. And then hopefully...soon…”

“Soon we can get out of here,” Mark finished hopefully, moving to his feet and turning to Felix. “And the others?”

“Gonna be back up here soon enough,” Felix replied. “The Fredricks are looking after Cry; the Patricks are double-checking the downstairs, seeing if there was a way Steve was even able to get out of there in the first place without having to get past us.”

“So long as they’re careful,” Mark sighed. “And if they find any sort of secret passageway or anything? Then...what? We follow it?”

Felix gave him a look. “Fuck no. We’ve been in this house long enough. If this is the key to the front door, we leave through that and let the cops take care of any other mysteries about this house.”

“But if it gives us any answers to what’s going on...like if there’s some sort of way of restoring Jack’s memories, and the memories of anyone else who’s used the book-”

“Guys. Fuck the memories,” Jack shot back. “I mean-I would love to get my memories back. Believe me, I would. But it’s not worth it. If it’s between that and getting everyone out of here alive fuckin’  _ finally _ , I’m taking the second option.” As Mark opened his mouth to retort, Jack continued, “If we have to keep doing loops in this damned place, it’s just going to make the issue even  _ worse _ anyway. Right?”

Mark shut his mouth, frowned and looked away, looked back, opened and shut his mouth once more before finally shaking his head in slight frustration. Felix gave him a sympathetic look.

“You think…” Bryan began, drawing attention away from the matter at hand and hoping to push away some of the tension-at least between groupmates. “You think this was maybe Anti’s last-ditch attempt to kill off Ethan and Cry again?” As everyone else eyed him, he continued, “I mean, the monsters pulled back not long after Ethan got messed up and I don’t really know about Cry but…”

“Maybe that and trying to keep us away from the main key?” Tyler sighed and shook his head. “Who knows.”

“Hopefully it won’t even matter soon,” Ken replied. “Once we’re all out of here.”

“Well I won’t argue, Anti’s a fuckin’ nutjob but…” Jack’s brows furrowed as he thought this over for a moment before shaking his head as if trying to shake the thoughts out. “Doesn’t matter. Once again, if we get the opportunity to get out, we take it. We can look for whatever other answers we’ll need once we’re all out of here and someplace safe.”

“Hey, uh-guys?” Noises on the ladder soon followed by Matthias popping his head up out of the hole. “Cry’s awake.”

“Thank god,” Felix sighed in relief. “Can he move?”

“Yeah, I can move, I’m good. Just-ow-sore,” Cry called up from the bottom.

“How are the Patricks?” Ken called down, heading over to the hole, soon followed by Bryan.

“Still looking around some. Joey went along to join them as soon as Cry woke up,” Matthias replied. “With that said, I’m gonna head back down to join them-” But he paused before heading on down, adding almost hesitantly, “How’s Ethan?”

“Ethan’s doing better now, thankfully,” Mark replied, glancing down at Ethan to see that although he’d coughed up some blood and stuff and was still pretty pale, at least he was breathing somewhat okay now.

“Thank god,” they heard Cry faintly comment. Matthias disappeared from the hole, soon to be replaced by Cry. The masked man headed up and surveyed the scene, self-consciously reaching up here and there to try and straighten the mask. “God...damn, Anti,” he muttered as he did. “Seriously, fuck that guy.” He headed over to Jack, noticing how worn the Irishman looked. “Jack. Are  _ you _ going to be okay?”

Jack frowned and nodded. “Yeah,” he replied, although it was a noticeable struggle to keep some of the weariness out of his voice. “Yeah, I’ll live. Once we’re all out of here though…”

“Once we’re all out of here, I dunno about the rest of you but I’m sleeping for a week,” Felix noted.

“Sleep for a week sounds kinda good, yeah,” Cry agreed.

“Sleep is  _ for _ the weak…” Jack mumbled, almost more so in habit than in actual sincerity as the spell flickered out in his hand. Nevertheless, the remark brought the faintest of smiles to Mark’s face, although it was somewhat saddened. It wasn’t long before the others made their way back up.

“So we found a secret passage,” Matthew announced as he made his way up through the hole. “It’s in the back of the wardrobe but it doesn’t really surprise me that nobody actually found out about it beforehand. It took a lot of searching around in that thing plus it’s kinda dark.”

“Any idea where it leads?” Mark asked, still unable to suppress his curiosity as Tyler and Ken meanwhile helped up Ethan to get him to the cell room.

Matthew blinked, then shook his head. “Nah. Were you guys thinking of checking it out? ‘Cause I mean if you are…”

“No, no, that’s fine,” Felix replied, shaking his head. “To be honest, I’ll just be happy for all of us to get the fuck out of here.”

“Here, here,” Bryan sighed, moving to hold the door open for the others.

It wasn’t long before everyone was in the cell, keeping the door cracked-there would be no need for actually closing it unless absolutely necessary.

“Right then, so the key…” Jack said, heading over to Felix to take a look.

Felix handed the key over, allowing Jack to examine it personally. Jack studied it for several long moments, scrutinizing it before his face finally lit up and he looked up at the others. “You’re right. This is it.  _ This is the key! _ ”

“Oh, thank god,” Mark muttered.

“Now we’ve mostly just got a run for the door-thankfully it’s not  _ too _ long-better than coming from upstairs, anyway,” Jack noted as he handed the key back to Felix.

Matthias nodded. “I think we’ll be able to manage it,” he said with a grin.

“We are going to have to be ready for anything though,” Ken pointed out. “I doubt Anti’s just gonna let us run on out of here, regardless of however these past fights just went.”

Jack nodded. “That’s true. For all we know, he could have all the monsters waiting out in the hall for us.” He swallowed hard, attempting to swallow down his nerves as memories from his and Mark’s first attempted escape threatened to rise back up and permeate his mind’s eye. “At the very least, we know he’s still going to be after Ethan and Cry-at least once he realizes they’re both still alive.”

“Fuck man, that’s true,” Felix muttered, frowning.

“Just-” Jack frowned, as the memory rose up again. It was a struggle holding back the pang of dread that came with it, the despair that emanated from those last few moments. “Just run. Whatever’s out there, don’t even try to fight it. Just run and keep running and don’t look back.  _ Don’t stop for anything. _ And then once we’re to the gate, they can’t follow us.”

“Except maybe Phillipe,” Stephanie pointed out. Jack frowned.

“Except maybe him, I guess.” He shook his head. “Again, that never actually happened the first time around, so I don’t know what exactly’s changed now, but…”

“What’s changed is that we’re about to get out,” J-Fred pointed out. “We didn’t do that before; you’re the only one that’s managed to get just out of reach.”

“Yeah, and Anti does seem to want you,” Matthew reminded.

Jack mulled this over before nodding slightly. “Maybe…” he murmured. “Maybe so.”

“Regardless, it might not be the worst advice,” Mark pointed out. “To just run and keep running. Depending on what happens, the ‘don’t look back’ part might not be followed completely, but…”

“Yeah, no man left behind,” a soft murmur came from on the floor, drawing everyone’s attention. Ethan coughed as his eyes weakly opened, slowly pushing himself back up and looking around. “Hey guys. Everyone still alive?”

“Ethan!” Mark exclaimed, him and Tyler being the first to hurry to the blunette’s side.

“Ethan, how you feeling?” Tyler asked.

Ethan looked down at himself, feeling where the wound was-now no more than an unnervingly large, damp, blood-soaked hole in his shirt. “A lot better now, thanks.” Looking around, he saw Matthias hold up the book he’d been using, taking it when it was handed to him. “Thanks for...yeah.”

“Everyone is still alive, don’t worry,” Mark replied. “Alive and...well, mostly recovered. The serious stuff anyway.”

Ethan frowned slightly, looking over at Cry, who held up a hand and shook his head.

“Oh-yeah, no. No, it wasn’t me this time,” Cry confessed.

Ethan’s eyes slid over to Jack before he looked back up at the others. “Jack…?”

“He’d already started a spell when Cry and Steph were out,” Mark explained.

“And Cry got fucked up pretty bad,” Jack explained, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. “I don’t think there was much of any other choice. He was literally at death’s door and at the time I didn’t even know what the status was for anyone upstairs...or where Steve was.”

“Oh, dammit, Steve was down there?” Ethan winced. “Man, we should’ve sent more people down there or something…”

“If we did, I don’t think everyone would’ve survived  _ up here _ ,” Felix pointed out. “We got lucky. On both counts.”

“We should probably just count our blessings for how things managed to go,” Ken pointed out. “Even as bad as they did.”

“But uh...while we are on the subject…” Jack hesitated before walking over to Cry and holding out the book. “If you still plan to take on this role from here…”

Cry blinked, staring at the book. “Uh.” He looked up at Jack, eyes showing the surprise that matched his tone. “Yeah. Yeah, actually.” He reached out to take the book from Jack. “Let’s hope nobody has to use it from here though, right man?”

Jack nodded. “Right.” He looked around at everyone. “So then...if everyone’s ready to move?”

“I don’t think there’s anything holding us back now,” Mark noted, looking around at everyone. Everyone else gave their agreements and consensus, Felix moving to the door and pushing it open.

“Alright, everyone. Straight to the front door, everybody keep close.” He gave a nod to everyone’s grim faces, stepping out of the cell. “Let’s go!”

The group raced out of the cell, out of the room, back through the meditation room down the corridor to get back to the dojo. Everyone moved quickly, weapons out and ready, keeping as close together as they could manage. They poured out into the dojo, filtered out into the main hall-

Nothing.

Eerily enough, nothing.

It was about enough to give the group pause the moment they stepped out but rather it merely slowed them down a bit, making their way to the front door. “Okay guys. Let’s do this,” Felix whispered, shoving the key firmly into the lock and giving it a quick twist-

_ And the door creaked open. _

The group was hit by a blast of cool, fresh air. The storm had finally slackened off to a light drizzle and heavy mist that settled over the place, shielding the world from the glimmers of early morning light. Everyone exchanged looks, a few people looking back behind them, off towards the halls, up the stairs. But slowly Felix stepped out at this point, quickly ushering for everyone else to follow-to which they did. Everyone headed out and finally an ounce of relief was finally starting to wash over everyone. The expressions amongst everyone were conflicted and mixed-some confusion, some suspicion, some unease and wariness while other faces held genuine smiles. Jack held back a bit, letting everyone else out first-because after Mark, he’d be damned if there was even one person who ended up pulled back, even one single person who was left behind.

Mark walked out into the open air, spying the vases Jack mentioned in a space of time that seemed like an eternity ago. “There it is, that’s the line,” he mentioned lowly to the Patricks and otherwise, pointing it out. “Supposedly that’s the barrier Anti can’t cross. Last time anyone checked, anyway.”

“I can’t believe we made it out of there,” Ken said, grinning over at some of the others.

“I dunno, something about this still seems suspicious,” Stephanie breathed. “I almost can’t believe it’s actually over.”

“Jack?” Mark turned around to see Jack standing in the open door, twisted around slightly as he gazed back inside the mansion. He frowned slightly at this. “Hey, Jack! C’mon, let’s go. We’re finally getting out of here.”

Jack seemed to start a bit at the sound of his voice, at his words, and when he finally turned to face the others it was slow. The expression on the Irishman’s face caused Mark to freeze, eyes widening, staring.

Blue eyes held terror. Joy, terror...and sadness.

“...Jack…?”

“Mark, I-” Jack’s breathing was quick, as if trying to suppress full-on panic. “I can’t, I-”

It was at this point Mark remembered his muscles and took a step forward, back towards Jack. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t...I can’t feel my legs.” Jack swallowed before continuing. “I can’t feel my arms either.”

It was at this point everyone was taking notice, one by one turning to face Jack.

“Jack-?” Felix began, taking a step forward as well.

“ _ It’s because he now belongs to me,” _ Jack’s voice said triumphantly-from  _ behind _ Jack. The doppelganger stepped up behind him, snaking arms around the Irishman’s stomach and chest as green eyes peered out at them from the darkness. Peering over Jack’s shoulder to look out at them, Anti continued, “His legs are now  _ mine, _ his arms are now  _ mine- _ ”

“Let go-!” Jack began, an edge of panic in his voice. “Let go of me, you fuck-!”

“ _ Did you really think it would be so easy? You all played your parts almost perfectly-especially dear little Jackaboy here. I now have EXACTLY what I want and now my monsters can have their fun in full. Looks like I win~ Say goodbye to your friends, Jack...it’s the last time you’ll EVER see them.” _

Jack’s eyes widened and he paled several shades more as they flickered back to the others. “Run…” he said quietly, barely audible. His mouth twitched in an attempt at a terrified but encouraging smile. “Yer out. Yer free now. So just...please...run an’ save yourselves. Don’t ever come back.”

And with that he was yanked back into the darkness faster than they could even blink, the door slamming behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoboy, so we haven't had a long chapter like that in a while! Buuut I couldn't really figure out a good place to split it, so enjoy the length. And the evil-Imean- ...But this marks the final stretch before the epilogue! Brace yourself for some intense chapters coming up! But in the meantime, thanks so much for all the comments, kudos and support! Really helps with getting this stuff written and posted. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	49. Chapter 48

It was at this point that they all snapped into action, as if a spell had been lifted.

“JACK!” Mark exclaimed, racing to the door and grabbing the knob, struggling to get the thing open, rattling it. “Jack! Jack! Dammit-SEAN!” He quickly turned back to Felix, who was practically on his heels. “The key-!”

“Already on it!” Felix replied, fumbling with the key to jam it into the lock. His wide eyes darted across the front of the door before he shook his head. “ _Fuck_ , that’s right-there ain’t a keyhole on this side of the door-!”

“What?! Then how the hell are we supposed to get back in there-?!” Mark began, panic evident in his voice.

Ken stared at the door for a moment before it clicked. “The hole,” he suddenly said, drawing everyone’s attention.

“What-?” J-Fred asked.

“The hole that goes down to the basement! If we could just find some rope or something, we could get back down there and-”

“Guys-?!” Mathew’s call drew their attention to the rest of the group, part of which had their attention now drawn towards a corner of the house. “We just got more problems.”

All eyes now turned to where he was looking to see a scarred Philippe and Abby approaching them from the mist.

“I’m not exactly an expert in monsters, but something tells me they’re not gonna let us even get close to the entrances,” Matthias noted as most of the group backed up a bit, back towards the line of safety-or at least what they figured was maybe safety. At this point, with the way shit was hitting the fan-who even knew now.

“Even if we can get into the house, we should still call for help anyway. We need to find a place with signal and call the cops,” Stephanie pointed out. “We need backup.”

“Point…” Ken agreed. Peering out at the cars, he frowned at the sight of the closest one. “Guys, the tires look slashed in at least one of the cars.”

“Yeah, they’re probably all like that,” Mathew noted, making a face. “Somehow I don’t think Anti would leave that option open for us.”

Ethan’s eyes flickered around at everyone before swallowing hard and shifting to the front of the group. “We can still get into the house. Or at least, some of us can.” His eyes flickered over to Mark. “A couple of us can make a break for it-try getting away from this house to call for help. Some of us will keep them distracted out here, there’s only two of them-”

Yeah. ‘Only.’

“-The others can try and get back inside. We’ll try and hold them off for as long as we can without a healer but-”

“No,” Cry suddenly interrupted. Meeting Ethan’s eyes, he flipped open the book and activated the healing spell, pulling a glowing outline of the clock off the inner cover. “There is a way we can have two healers at a time.”

“Cry-we don’t know how that spell works. We don’t know if you lose memories every time you actually use it or if you lose them for as long as you have the spell going-” Felix began, uncertain.

“I know but-dammit, it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotta save Jack either way, right? Besides, I’m not sure how, but I get the feeling you guys are gonna need it. It kinda seems to be at the center of everything, you know?” Cry held the book out. “Here. Somebody take this. I’m staying behind. You all remember how to use it?”

Mathew reached out and took the book, frowning as he eyed it. “Take your own blood, turn back the hands-”

“On the smaller clock. The _smaller_ one. That’s right, yeah! And just-focus.”

Mathew nodded, stealing a glance over at Stephanie, who shook her head.

“You’re not going without me,” Stephanie said stubbornly.

Mathew shook his head. “Steph, we’re gonna need help. You’re one of the least-armed-remember?”

“No. Mathew, _no-_ ”

“We’re gonna need someone to go out and call in the cavalry. Can you do that for us?”

Stephanie stared for several long moments, looking ready to argue, but then sucked in a shaky breath before nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, I can. But Mathew Robert Patrick, you’d better come back alive or so help me-”

Mathew chuckled, winding an arm around her waist for just a moment to pull her close, pressing his forehead to hers. “I will. Same to you. And if I forget anything from using this book, you can fill in the gaps for me.”

Stephanie bit her lip and nodded again. “You can count on it.”

“Can we maybe get at least two people going?” Cry asked, eyeing the monsters as they continued towards them. Everyone else was starting to gear up, readying their weapons for a fight. “Not that I don’t have confidence in Steph or anything, just...better shot in numbers.”

“I’ll go,” Ken offered. “I’m not very well-armed either, so…”

“Good. Do it.” Cry kept focused on the monsters, standing a few steps behind Ethan. He would never say, but he could gradually feel bits and pieces slipping away with every second that passed of the spell’s existence.

Tyler eyed the forming mansion group with a frown before slipping over towards them.

“Tyler-?” Mark began.

Tyler shook his head. “You guys have got a skeleton crew,” he pointed out. “Looks like you could use the extra help. Besides-someone’s gotta keep you out of trouble, right?”

“ _Guys?_ ” Matthias called over, drawing everyone’s attention back. The monsters were no more than ten feet away now, staring them down. J-Fred stood with his gun ready, Bryan with his crossbow. Matthias meanwhile adjusted the grip on his axe, moving into position. “We’ve kinda got trouble here!”

“Everyone get ready to move and forever make your peace,” Cry murmured to everyone. Mathew looked over, gave a nod with a quick kiss exchanged between him and Stephanie before reluctantly pulling away and hurrying over to the rest of the group that was planning to make their way back inside. The masked man meanwhile turned to the blunette next to him. “Ethan?”

“Yeah,” Ethan muttered back as he summoned blue light into his hand. The second he saw Abby take one more step forward, his magic was unleashed.

“ _Spiritus verberare!_ ”

And that’s when all hell broke loose.

Abby sprang forward and Philippe charged at the group as everyone scattered. The core group held their ground as Stephanie and Ken meanwhile bolted for the gate while Mark, Felix, Mathew and Tyler moved to rush around the monsters, giving them as wide a berth as they could manage until they were practically running along the wall of the house. Noticing the group coming apart, Philippe looked from the mansion to the ones in the woods before suddenly taking off into the woods. Mathew’s eyes widened.

“No-!” he whispered, but was tapped/pulled on the arm by Felix, tugged back along to stay on track, keep up, don’t break away.

“They’ll be fine, they’ll be _better_ than fine once we end this. Hurry,” Felix muttered as they hurried around the corner of the house.

Stephanie meanwhile glanced over her shoulder as they tore through the woods, ducking water-weighed branches and weaving through trees, sliding on the blanket of leaves that covered the ground.

“Ken! It’s after us!” she reported.

Ken glanced back over his shoulder as well, seeing the speedy monster was coming up on them and fast. “Oh- _shit-!”_ he remarked, the sight adding an extra kick to his step, his breathing already labored. “Steph, we might have to split up.”

“What?!” Stephanie exclaimed.

“It can’t follow the both of us, right?”

The two were silent for a long moment as they continued to race through the forest, leaping over logs and roots here and there, trying to keep the road in sight as much as they possibly could.

“We split and we’ll lose track of the road. We could get...lost in the woods… We could get caught by the monster-!” Stephanie argued, starting to feel her lungs burning as well.

“Even if we reach the road, we’ll still have to deal with _this_ thing!” Ken countered. “And besides. One of us getting caught is better than both of us.” Skidding to a stop, he pulled a ball out of his pocket, waiting until Stephanie stopped before tossing one to her. “I’m not sure how you’re gonna light it, but keep it on your person. It might help in getting found later-or for defense in a pinch or-something-”

Stephanie caught the ball, opened her mouth to protest, but Ken shook his head.

“Good luck.”

And with that said, the man suddenly took off abruptly to his left in diagonal forward, away from Stephanie but still off towards the road. Stephanie quickly shut her mouth again and took off in a diagonal forward as well, going right. This was stupid. This was stupid. This was stupid.

But this would work.

It _had_ to work.

And hopefully that thing wouldn’t catch them.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile the group for the mansion hurried around the side of the house, moving along the wall, searching desperately for the hole and something to head down it. “It’s gotta be here. It’s _gotta_ be around here somewhere, dammit,” Felix muttered under his breath as they turned a corner.

They almost missed it. With the way the house was angled, with the way the hole was facing, they almost missed it but there it was, a gaping portal into darkness.

“How are we going to get in there safely?” Mathew asked, peering down into the hole before pulling himself back up and looking around at their surroundings. “We need to find something like a ladder or a...or a rope or…” He shook his head, glancing over at Mark.

Mark growled. “Fucking fuck, we’re gonna have to _Hello Neighbor_ this, aren’t we?” he grumbled as he began looking around.

There really wasn’t all that much around-some yard, some bushes, some garden.

...Wait.

Tyler stared at the rows of unkempt flowers for a long moment before he suddenly turned and started walking away from the group, sticking alongside the wall.

“Huh-what-?” Felix turned around, seeing the other man head off. “Tyler!” he called over, hurrying over to join him. “Tyler, what the fuck-?”

“This house has a garden,” Tyler explained.

“Yeah, so?” The Swede eyed him, looking just as puzzled as he sounded at the simple response.

“So gardens need tending-and if we can’t find any rope outright, there’s gotta be a spigot or a storage area or something around here somewhere-” Tyler’s eyes flickered over a few rows of bushes a ways away, finally coming to rest on a ramshackled old shack. “There.”

Curiously Felix moved to follow, catching the attention of the others and waving them forward, trying to remain as quiet as possible, trying his best to ignore the sounds of shouts and gunshots and screeches echoing from where the others were. The group all headed over to the shack, Tyler reaching out to rattle the door a bit and making a face.

“Matthias’s axe would be a big help here,” he murmured, looking over at the others. “I mean, I could try using the katana, but…”

“You might end up breaking it that way,” Mathew warned, frowning as Felix meanwhile moved to circle the shack, checking for any sort of holes or alternative ways in. “I’m not really sure I would risk it.”

“Then let’s just kick the damn door down and be done with it,” Mark muttered, sizing up the door. “The wood looks pretty rotted anyway.”

“That’d make a lot of noise,” Mathew pointed out. “And we don’t know if there are any other monsters wandering around out here. There’s still _at least_ two we know of unaccounted for, after all-and that’s not even mentioning some of the ones that were back in the cell.”

“Guys,” Felix spoke up from behind the shack, coming to a stop and peering around the corner of the wooden structure. Mathew moved to head around, eyes lighting up at the stump and woodpile.

“That might actually be perfect,” he noted. Felix nodded, rubbing his hands together before reaching down to grab the handle of the axe that was wedged in the stump.

With a grunt the Swede pulled, yanking hard on the axe. First attempt, nothing. He released the wooden handle for a moment, grasping his hands while making a face. “ _Fuck-”_ he muttered before reaching down to grab it and give it another yank. This time he put his foot against the stump, adding some extra force until finally the axe went flying out, sending Felix stumbling backwards. The blade went wild for a moment as Felix staggered and attempted to regain his balance, but Tyler quickly moved behind him to help steady him, being as careful as he could manage. “Fucking yeah, bros, got it!”

“Good, let’s hurry up and use it on the door,” Mark instructed impatiently as the group moved to hurry back around. “There’d better be something useful in there.”

“Yeah, it’s really gonna suck if we’ve been wasting our time over here,” Mathew muttered as Felix passed the hairspray over to Tyler and moved to swing the blade of the axe down at the lock on the door. The blade was pretty rusty but then again...so was the lock. All the same, no dice.

After a few swings, Felix finally swore in Swedish before turning to the others. “This ain’t exactly working as well as it might in the movies!”

“It is pretty loud, too,” Mathew pointed out, looking around somewhat nervously.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Mark muttered, moving to take his shot at it. But as he raised the axe, Tyler frowned, staring for a moment before reaching out.

“Here, Mark, let me see it.”

Mark glanced over at his childhood friend with a stubborn frown that bordered challenging. “What?”

“I think I can get it loose, just let me see it. Clearly trying to cut the thing isn’t going to work, so…”

Mark hesitated before handing the axe over to Tyler and stepping back. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“The wood’s pretty rotted...right?” Tyler asked, moving to jam the axe into the hasp, angling it and pulling hard. “If we could just use this like a lever…” He grunted, the lock finally pulling out of the door and dropping silently into the grass. “Got it!”

“Hey! Yeah, there we go!” Mathew exclaimed, pulling the door open and stepping inside to look around. Tools, tools, hammer, crowbar, nails, old fencing, saws, wheelbarrow-

Hose.

He snatched the old rubber hose, hurrying out. “C’mon, let’s go-”

Loud footsteps silenced him immediately, and the group turned to see Ryuzuu thudding past, moving towards the commotion. Everyone stood frozen for a moment before the group rushed into the shack, ducking on each side of the door and waiting silently for the giant to pass. Mark flashed a worried, wide-eyed look to Tyler, who shook his head.

“Too late now, we need to go,” Tyler mouthed silently to Mark, who frowned, hesitated, but then finally nodded.

The group waited until the footsteps were faint before filtering back out and into the morning light. They hurried over to the hole, Felix looking around for a moment before finding a thin tree not too far off and moving there with Mathew to try and tie it as best as they could manage around the tree. He finally straightened, running a hand back through his hair as he eyed it worriedly.

“Fuck man, this is going to _break_ ,” he whispered, looking back towards the hole. “Or come untied. This is _not_ a good idea.”

“None of this is a good idea,” Mark pointed out resolutely. “If you want, you still have the option of going back and joining the others. I’m sure they could use the extra hand.”

“Are you kidding me? I ain’t going anywhere,” Felix replied, meeting Mark’s look with an expression just as stubborn. “Let’s go get our Irish potato.”

“Well, who’s going to be the first to head down?” Mathew asked, peering down into the darkness.

Tyler looked around at everyone before moving to the edge. “Here, I’ll go first.”

Mark frowned. “Tyler-”

“I’m the biggest person here, right? We need to make sure it’s secure enough to hold everyone else. And if it’s not, then at least the three of you will be up here to make sure it doesn’t suddenly untie and drop me,” he replied. Stealing a glance over to Mathew, he added, “Just be ready to heal any of us in case this ends up being a bust.”

Mathew nodded reassuringly. “I’ll be the second one to head down,” he added. “I’m second in size anyway, so…”

Tyler nodded, carefully moving to get a decent grip on the hose and move over the side. Stealing a glance at Mark again, he added, “Just like rock-climbing back home. Right?”

“Be _careful,_ Tyler,” Mark cautioned, eyeing the other worriedly as he watched Tyler rappel down the wall.

A tense silence hung over the group that lightly hung onto the hose, just in case the knot came undone, but finally there was the sound of feet meeting water. Tyler called up, “Okay, I’m on the ground! Matt, you next!”

Mathew nodded nervously but tucked the book into the hem of his pants. “Alright, I’m coming down!” he called as quietly as he could. He paused for a moment, trying to think of what to do with the pipe in his hand before adding, “I’m gonna go on ahead and toss my pipe down. Look out below!”

He dropped the pipe, hearing a splash and some shifting down below. “Could’ve been done better,” Tyler pointed out. “Water’s a little deep down here. You go ahead and head down; I’m gonna try and find the pipe.” Light flickered on as Tyler turned on the flashlight of his phone for better lighting, shining it around the area. “Also be careful; the wall is _really_ slick so it’s really easy to lose footing.”

“Noted. Thanks,” Mathew replied, carefully moving to follow Tyler’s rappel. About halfway down the group could hear him whine, “Oh man. This _really_ isn’t safe.”

“You doing alright, Matt?” Mark called down softly.

“Yeah, just- Tyler’s right, I just about slipped. Be _very careful_ going down this thing, you guys.”

Mark exchanged a look at Felix and nodded silently. “Are you next or me?” he asked.

Felix looked from himself to Mark before grimacing. “Fuck, man. You, I think.”

“Are you sure?” Mark asked, worry flickering through his eyes. “You realize if you’re the last one down, there’s gonna be no one up here to catch the hose if it comes undone. And if anything comes up on us...”

“Yeah, that’s less likely to happen with me than with you. The whole hose thing coming undone, anyway. I mean...look at us, man, I’m smaller.”

Mark frowned for a moment before smirking softly in spite of himself, trying to push away any nerves and bad feelings. “That’s something that’s not heard every day,” he pointed out. Hearing what sounded like a splash and quiet conversation between Mathew and Tyler below, he looked back at the Swede. “Alright, guess I’m next.”

“Don’t die,” Felix said, watching as Mark did his best to hook his baseball bat into one of his belt loops and got into position for descent. Mark managed to flash Felix a small, weary smirk in spite of the situation.

“Then don’t let me fall,” he replied before climbing down over the edge. As he began his way down, he added, “Don’t worry…” His voice was fading a bit with each added foot. “I’m a professional.”

Felix rolled his eyes and shook his head, peering down into the hole and watching the three figures before straightening a little and looking around warily. “Hurry, hurry, hurry…” he muttered under his breath, his fingers tapping impatiently against his leg.

When Mark finally reached his destination, he looked up at the entrance, calling up to Felix, “Alright, I’m done! Felix, hurry up!”

“Fuckin’...” Felix muttered, looking around and testing the hose once more with a few sharp tugs and a bit of leaning his weight on the thing before moving to head down over the edge and descend as well. As he did, he could feel tunnel’s slick stone wall under his tennis shoes, causing him to slide a little on more than one occasion. Multiple times he let a Swedish curse fly, and about half of these times he had to take a moment to steady himself, to take a few deep breaths and try to think of something calming, like Marzia or the pugs.

After about his fourth slip, he called down, “This tunnel can go suck a dick, guys, I swear to god one of us is gonna end up getting ourselves ki-”

It was at that point his foot stepped at the wrong spot, the wrong angle, and unable to gain traction it plunged down beneath him. The sudden force of the dip sent his other foot sliding, he let out a loud yelp and gripped the hose as hard as he could with both hands. He could feel the sharp jerk in his shoulders as his arms were suddenly supporting all of his weight, his legs having flown out from under him and left dangling beneath him. The surprise of impact to his side and back as he swung into the wet wall with moderate force nearly caused him to let go, but by some miracle he managed to continue holding on.

“Felix-!”

“Oh holy shit-!”

“Felix, are you alright?”

The last call was from Mathew, to which Felix called back in a bordering panicked reply, “Do I look alright?! Jesus-!”

The blond then shook his head resolutely. “Fuck this. Fuck this. I’m not rappelling anymore guys, this is stupid.”

“Felix-” Mark began.

“I’m still coming down, goddammit, hold on!”

Looking around, then down, then back up at his arms, he muttered to himself, “Well, that’s about halfway…” Wrapping his legs around the hose, he loosened his grip a bit in quick, sporadic bursts, just enough to gradually slide the rest of his way down the hose. His heart didn’t stop hammering until he felt the soft ground beneath his shoes and the water of the puddle seeping into them. Taking a few deep breaths, he shook his head, giving them all a look with wide eyes.

“We’re not taking that way again. No way. Fuck that,” he stated.

Mathew looked back up at the hose and the entrance before replying, “Well, good thing we still have the key. We shouldn’t have nearly as much of a problem getting out as we did getting back in.”

“That does remind me though,” Tyler spoke up. “Where do we even start _looking?_ This mansion is huge. Anti could be keeping Jack anywhere.”

Felix frowned at this, finally making a face that bordered on a cringe and shrugging. “One of the cells, maybe? It would make sense.”

“A cell...the lab…” Mathew suggested. “I’m sure the lab exists for something or another; I can’t just bring myself to think it didn’t have any purpose for the victims trapped here. And besides, it _did_ have a cage.”

“The top floor had that giant cell too,” Mark added grimly, frowning worriedly and shifting impatiently.

“Yeah, for the _monsters._ You really think Anti’s gonna be keeping Jack in _there?_ ” Felix pointed out.

Mark shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. “Dammit. We don’t have _time_ to search this entire building.”

“Let’s just start with what we know and go from there,” Tyler advised. “If none of the places we mentioned work out, then we’ll think of something else.”

Mathew nodded, looking around at everyone as he pulled the book out from his pants hem and gripped his wet, recovered pipe. “Let’s go.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, so a couple things! First off, I think I'm gonna get back into replying to comments regularly, starting with either this chapter or the last one. I fell way too behind with the other chapters in responding to stuff and I miss interacting with you guys, so no time like the present to pick it back up again! Second-holy shit. Holy shit, okay so uh- I've been seeing some amazing fan stuff being done to this lately? I'm still absolutely blown away by the fact that anyone wants to do anything to this story. Seriously, this has never actually happened before. And I keep seeing people asking if they can here and there throughout the chapters-the answer is always going to be a huge yes! Please let me see it when you're done, this is extremely cool! On a related note, go check out some of the links to these works in the comments below and just overall huge props to all the work put into them! This is amazing-you guys are all amazing, just from all the comments and kudos and bookmarks that keep me going to the fanworks being done to it that's got me freaking out, and a million thanks to all of you guys will never be enough. So! With all that being said, I'll make sure to get the next chapter out soon and we'll get this show on the road. Until then!


	50. Chapter 49

Ugh, all he could feel was a dull throbbing in his head. Throbbing and numbness that spidered out and covered his limbs. Patches of him felt like static, but the patches were sporadic, as if his body was waging a war against the sensation. As his eyes fluttered open, he struggled to sit up, but the process was slow and arduous. He was stumbling, tripping all over himself like a drunk person and he wasn’t even fully propped up yet. His head spun slightly, as if recovering from a headrush, and with a moan he finally managed to prop himself up enough to fall back against an uncomfortable coldness, the gapped solid of steel bars. As he leaned against it, he tried to get a decent look around, eyes still bleary.

He felt sick. He wasn’t sure if it was due to panic or the circumstances of the situation or...or if it was because something was truly wrong with him. Memories of the past twenty minutes, thirty minutes-oh god, how long had he been out?-came rushing back to him and he paled somehow even further, even though at this point he must’ve been as white as a sheet. As he tried to move again, even the slightest lean forward caused a searing pain in his belly, right where the clock pattern was inscribed.

“Oh...oh, what the _fuck_ ,” Jack whispered, trying to get a bearing on what all the hell was going on now. What he could see just from his current perspective was that he was in a cage-okay, that was actually pretty obvious from the feeling of the bars he was leaning against. A cage or...or a cell. The lighting was dim and its flickering was doing his eyes no favors as they struggled to adjust.

“Oh god...where am I…?” he whispered as he shifted ever slightly in an attempt to get a better look around. His current perspective had him staring forward, directly into a far-off wall. His mind struggled to get a bearing on just _where_ he was exactly. He’d been in cells before, but none quite of this size. This wasn’t any sort of situation he’d been stuck in prior, he could really only surmise that much.

The sound of movement caught his attention, drawing his eyes toward a dark corner where he saw one of the monsters wandering by. He sucked in a sharp breath, immediately scooting back against the bars as much as he could possibly manage-which actually got him nowhere except flattened against them. His wide eyes followed the monster’s movements, a creature that was hardly any more than a spiked, floating head that floated easily by with a sharp-toothed cheshire grin. A quick scan of his nearest surroundings revealed another monster that was simply as a grey pulsating mass settled in the corner just down the way from him, covered with eyeballs and a giant mouth. He didn’t dare to move, unsure if they hadn’t seen him yet or…

No, that had to be it. Maybe their eyesight just sucked, because he had little doubt that they’d actually seen him yet. And the more he stared into the darkness and his eyes adjusted, the more monsters he started to see around him. This was definitely the giant cell in that long wide corridor up on the top floor. But _why?_ Was Anti just- Did he just leave him up here to let the monsters all find him and rip him to pieces? But why hadn’t they yet?

The sound of movement roused him from his thoughts. He remained frozen for another long moment, but finally gained enough courage to break this state, just enough to twist around to see behind him.

Behind him, _fuckin’ Steve_ , but instead of frenzied or violent, much like the others it was just...drifting.

Wandering.

His blue eyes remained focused on Steve in confused fascination. This was all too out of the ordinary, completely surreal after all past experiences.

“What the fuck?” he whispered.

Not too far off the Irishman could hear maniacal giggling in a voice that sounded _far_ too much like his own. It made his breath catch, but the feeling only lasted for a moment before he twisted around as best he could to look over his other shoulder.

His doppelganger stood not far from him, silent up until now, watching him like a predator watching prey. A big grin rested on his face, cocky triumph shining in his emerald eyes.

“So. You’re finally awake,” Anti remarked.

“Anti…” Jack moved to try and scoot around a bit further but he felt weak, his limbs felt so heavy. That numb, staticky feeling was running through his body again, making it awkward and difficult to coordinate regardless. He only managed about halfway before finally leaning his shoulder against the bars, head tiredly following partway. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and worn, soft and faint with exhaustion. “What...what is this? What are we doing here? Why…?”

Anti continued to watch him in silence, his only response being that horrible wide grin of his.

“Why are the monsters not reacting to me? Why haven’t they…” Jack’s eyes flickered back towards the darkness before continuing. “They haven’t...killed me.”

Anti continued to stare for a few long moments before finally taking a step forward, then another. He didn’t stop until he reached the bars, stopping right next to Jack and crouching.

“You don’t see it?” he asked. Although the question was directed towards him, the eyes focused instead on the darkness, piercing through. “You don’t catch on very quick...do you?”

Jack stared at him for a moment before looking back out at the monsters with his eyes and shaking his head slightly.

“...No.”

Anti eyed him for a moment, unimpressed before pulling out his knife and reaching through the bars, grabbing the Irishman by the shoulder to twist him around and force him to face him while Jack’s shirt lifted somewhat from the grip. Smirking, he warned, “I have a little something to show you. Don’t move too much though; I don’t want my work ruined on accident.”

“What? No-no-!” Jack began, eyes wide as he saw the knife move in close to his stomach again. But instead of stabbing into him, it quickly slipped beneath the bandages and twisted, easily slicing through the fabric. The bandages slid off his torso, into his lap and around him on the floor. As Jack looked down at his stomach, he could see numbers one to eleven oozing with blood-

No. Not blood. It couldn’t be blood, it was way too dark for that.

It was almost black.

Eyes focusing morbidly on the macabre work, he finally found his voice. When it came out though, it was a whisper. “What...what is this? What did you do to me?”

“Is that _really_ all you have to ask about this?” Anti asked him tauntingly, expecting. “Really, I was expecting something more-”

“ _Why is my blood black, Anti?!”_

It was this snap of impatience that caused the doppelganger to flash his teeth with his grin, pulling back his knife hand to set the blade a safe distance behind himself and then reach back in, tracing one finger lightly along the numbers to connect each one with smeared blood, going clockwise.

“It’s almost complete,” he murmured. “Soon. Very soon, Sean, you will join your brethren and I will take your place in the world-”

“What does that even mean?! Fuck you, dude-!”

“ _Do you wish to know why your blood is black?”_ Anti suddenly interrupted, voice suddenly taking a more vicious edge to it as he forcefully spun the Irishman back around so his back was to the bars, forcing blue eyes to stare out into the darkness. When Anti spoke next, Jack could feel the man’s breath on his ear, sending a chill through his body and a shiver down his spine.

_“Monsters don’t go after their own, Jack.”_

Jack’s eyes widened as the realization hit him like a brick. He stared out at the monsters as a long silence fell over them before he dared to speak, to even _breathe_  again.

“All of these monsters were-” Slowly he looked down at his hands, at himself. “Oh my god. Oh my god. They were people. They were just like me, weren’t they?”

A peal of laughter ripped from Anti, causing the Irishman to wince-but at least the entity was now standing and walking away. “Correct, Jackaboy! That is correct.”

Jack tried to turn again to watch him, to at least get in a decent enough angle to follow him with his eyes. He knew now that the monsters wouldn’t attack him, at least not without Anti’s say-so. They weren’t a danger to him anymore.

Anti was.

“Abby, Feliciano-which, for the record, I don’t know how you misheard _Philippe_ , but…” Anti smirked, turning back to face him. “Even Steve. Or Stiana, as my brother was once called.”

Jack’s mouth dropped open at this, staring at the entity. When he attempted to speak, it came out stilted and disjointed, struggling to put together a full sentence as his mind began to whirl. “Your-brother-”

“My older brother was an alchemist and a scientist. I was a wizard-much like what your dear friend Ethan is becoming. Until I got sick,” Anti explained. “My brother was determined to keep me alive though, no matter _what_ it took or what the sacrifices were. So we developed that book together.” Taking a few steps towards Jack again, he continued, “You know, I barely even remember that time anymore. Those memories have mostly been cast away and buried under dozens of lifetimes, but I remember what the goal was: to share his life with mine-quite literally-using magic and science. So long as _he_ lived, _I_ lived, regardless of my health. And it all went hand in hand-he continuously renewed the bond every time he helped better my health with the magic of the book. There was only one problem with that system.”

Jack leaned back just a tiny bit as Anti leaned forward to get closer to his level. It was the most Jack could manage to actually recoil in his condition.

“ _I don’t like to share.”_

Jack swallowed hard. “So you...you did this,” he whispered, his eyes flickering back down to himself. “You took everything away from him.”

“I did!” Anti affirmed triumphantly with notes of glee. “I took his soul, his memories, his _very existence!_ What remained of his body in the aftermath…” He gestured to Steve with a wave of his hand. “Was _that._ A being with its very existence ripped away-turns out they become something twisted and malformed.”

“You…” Jack began in a whisper, horror trickling into his tone. “He was your own brother-”

“My brother for a shot at immortality. I feel the sacrifice was well worth it.”

“He tried to _help you._ ”

“He was a sentimental fool,” Anti shot back, narrowing his eyes a bit.

Jack opened his mouth, shut it again, decided now to change tracks. “So you’ve been doing this ever since. Just...jumping from body to body. Life to life.”

“I wouldn’t quite say jumping into one’s _body_ -you can see that for yourself. One’s _existence_ , however…” Anti shrugged. “I live out one’s life until their natural years are up and the body is ready to give out. Then I return here to start all over again. Often the body doesn’t make it by the time another candidate shows up-” Anti shook his head. “And that’s fine. There are spells on the house to serve as a temporary vessel for me when such a thing happens. I’m more so able to _haunt_ the house as time does not pass normally here, with my newfound pets as my commanded company.” His eyes lit up as he added, “Until another group of idiots wanders in.”

“Us,” Jack whispered. “Shit.”

“And here you thought you _would actually win._ Do you have any _idea_ how many times I have played this game? How many I have played it with?”

“You won’t be able to play it much longer. The others are out, they’re gone. They’ll make sure this house gets destroyed, one way or another,” Jack pointed out.

“The others? You really think they’d just run and leave you behind?” Anti smirked. “They’re just like every other group. _Weak._ Bonded with _loyalty._ ‘No man left behind’, I’m sure they’ve said at least once?” He shook his head. “If nothing else, they won’t escape my monsters-”

“They just have to cross the barrier. They just have to call for help-”

“No. Even then, they won’t get a chance to! Don’t you remember what happened with the Patricks?” Anti grinned. “My dear monster, Feli-he is different somehow. I almost want to say that when he existed, he was an entity similar to what I’ve become. His existence burned out and his natural years failed not too long after I took it in consequence. Oops.” The grin widened as Anti added, “But at least I got a good monster. One that could cross the barrier, one that could chase down any escapees. It’s become quite a benefit for me.”

Jack stared, speechless for once. When he found his voice again, “The owner of the other book-the one that Ethan found. He must’ve been in the same group. Wasn’t he?” Frowning, he continued, “I don’t imagine there are too many magic users or strange entities that wander in here, after all.”

The smile quickly dropped from Anti’s face and his green eyes narrowed. “That _fucking Englishman_ almost ruined _everything._ Becoming the stand-in for Feliciano whenever he would struggle. Becoming the _backup-_ ”

“Like Cry,” Jack whispered in realization. “Like Ethan.”

“I can’t siphon off multiple people and expect to get good results. Not much, anyway,” Anti snarled. “That Englishman was an absolute _thorn in my side_ by hiding his book in my own home and shedding his own magic to its ether in his final act. But at least he was good practice and preparation for the rare ‘what if’ if nothing else. Once your friends used the book, killing them every loop became _necessary,_ so that none of their existence would transfer over to me in the bulk of yours whenever you used a spell to restart.”

Jack let all of this slowly sink in. He was fucked. They were all fucked, oh god-

What would happen if Anti was right? If the others did chose to come back and rescue him but they were too late?

They would hesitate. No doubt they’d pause and want to be careful in case there was any way of getting him back. And that’d be when Anti would strike.

But Anti didn’t quite seem ready to get this show in the road yet. Maybe he was still preparing for whatever process this was going to take or...or maybe it was a remainder of the spell that still needed charging. Maybe he still had time.

Time.

He had to keep trying to get more of it.

He just had to keep distracting Anti and maybe…

Just maybe…

“Then...Mark. Why were you constantly killing Mark? With _every loop without fail_ until Cry-” Jack questioned. Anti eyed him with minor annoyance at the mention of the man.

“Because I was angry. _It should’ve been him._ ”

Jack’s eyes widened. When he spoke, his voice came out in no more than a whisper. “What…?”

“ _It should’ve been him. But that FUCKING martyr had to throw YOU out instead._ ”

Jack stared before finally mustering up the words, “What are you talking about? And why-?”

“I thought Mark would be easier to manipulate, what with that _bleeding heart_ of his. And seeing how he was the one that was dragging your sorry ass all over this house, I figured he would stand a better chance at survival. My pets can sometimes get a little... _over-enthusiastic_ , at times. And it has to look at least _somewhat_ believable. But they were never meant to actually _kill_ my main target once chosen, not really. With Mark I figured there wouldn’t be any _stupid_ mishaps where others like Cry or Ethan would have to step in.” Anti shook his head. “It wasn’t until it happened a few times with you that I decided to put my pets mostly on manual.”

“To control them,” Jack murmured. “To make them pull back when needed.”

“ _That’s right._ It takes a little bit of extra effort, but when it _is_ truly necessary…” Anti shook his head. “But Mark sacrificed himself saving _you_ . So I had to settle for _second best_ .” The entity ran a hand back roughly through green locks before pacing again. “But it all worked out in the long run. In the following loops I realized I would’ve picked wrong. With Mark being the martyr that he is, he probably would’ve died straight away just trying to protect everyone, game and rules be damned.” Anti shrugged. “So after that it was just a case of _getting under your skin_ , manipulating that confidence and determination of yours. And that-what did you call it? _Positive mental attitude?_ Or at least what you attempted to keep intact for a while towards the onset while playing? I quickly realized that you would just keep going and going for as long as I needed you to. And it was so _easy_ after Mark’s initial sacrifice, a wound that I could just keep picking at and picking at, over and over for as long as I needed.”

Jack stared in horror, his mind racing at a million miles a minute. Now he was almost uncertain, almost _hoping_ none of the others were gonna come to his rescue.

But of course they were. There wasn’t much doubt in his mind anymore. He knew he had to keep resisting Anti for as long as he could, however he could. He had to keep distracting Anti, he had to keep trying to bide time.

“The Patricks. The numbers. How do they all fit into this?” he demanded.

“The Patricks?” Anti smirked. “I’ve just about managed to deplete you of your own existence entirely, Jackaboy. This is the _last_ loop. I needed ingredients. Preparations.”

“Ingredients?” Jack frowned with worry and confusion. “What do you mean, ‘ingredients’?”

“To solidify the final transfer, I need slivers of twelve different souls.”

Jack frowned. “When-?”

“You remember when everyone passed out when you succeeded in the clock puzzle?” Anti smirked at Jack’s look of realization. “It wasn’t _just_ a puzzle, of course; it was a magical device used to fracture and harvest. As for the numbers I carved into you, each represents the final larger portions of your existence. There really isn’t very much left to you at this point-both you and I know that. You traded those larger portions of your existence to heal each person in this house after I carved in the numbers-all of them transferring into me. All but one.” Anti’s smirk turned into a grin as he crouched before Jack again. “But it won’t be long now.”

And suddenly the entity rose to his feet, moving to open the cage-and once again Jack felt all the heavy numbness in his limbs in full. He couldn’t move his body, he couldn’t…

Because so much of his existence was gone, was that it? Maybe he couldn’t move something whenever Anti was able to solidify the same area. He didn’t know for sure, this was all fucking nuts, he-

The Irishman nearly toppled when the door was pulled open. Instead Anti grabbed his arm to haul him up somewhat and drag him out of the cell.

“What? No…” Jack began, feeling panic rising up in him. “No!”

“ _Hush_ , Jack. It’s almost over, and once it is, you won’t remember a thing,” Anti assured, half snapping, half-taunting.

“No! NO! Let me go! Oh god. Don’t do this, please-!”

Instead the green-eyed monster ignored his victim’s pleas, dragging him as he looked thoughtful. “Now then, what's left…?” he murmured as he paused for just a moment, then turned back to Jack. "Ah yes." He eyed the Irishman, starting to reach down. "All I need now is the book.”

Jack blinked in sudden realization, a surge of relief immediately shooting through him. “You...you do…?” he murmured as Anti checked his person for the book, then grabbed both his shoulders and hauled him up to look him square in the eyes. Those green eyes now flashed with annoyance and venom and when their owner spoke next, the question came out in a snarl.

“Where. Is it?”

Jack blinked, wide-eyed, before a fraction of the fear disappeared from his features.

“Ah...funny story, that. Wouldn’t you like to know?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since the last chapter, uh- It's been a rough couple of months. We've had two deaths in the family in the span of two months and I'm currently getting ready to go to the funeral of the second one. Um-I'm gonna try getting the next chapter out as soon as I can manage. Thanks so much for all the support so far though, I could never manage it all without you. Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter. Until then!


	51. Chapter 50

She wasn’t sure how long she ran.

Stephanie glanced over her shoulder as her steps gradually slowed-first into a jog, then into a walk, then finally a stop with her hands on her knees as she panted for breath. There was no monster in sight, just a damp, low-hanging mist that lingered around everywhere. A blessing and a curse-on one hand, it was nice and cooling. On the other, it obscured her vision far more than she preferred.

Her eyes swept the area with a frown. “Ken?” she called softly, but she knew she’d get no response. Who knew how far away he was at this point, especially considering they took off in completely opposite directions, or if he was even still alive-

Oh no. No, no no. Don’t even start thinking like that.

He was alive.

Everyone had to still be alive.

They’d come way too far to end up failing now.

“C...come on Steph. Get it together. Get it together here,” she whispered to herself through pants, remembering the entire reason she was even out here in the first place. She reached down into her pocket, pulling out her cell and checking the charge and signal first and foremost.

And that was the point she realized their error.

“ _Dangit_ ,” she whispered, letting her hand drop as she looked around at the surrounding forest.

No signal, of course.

Her phone wouldn’t pick up anything here in Europe; she needed a foreign phone. She should’ve asked for Felix’s or Jack’s or-

She was completely disconnected from everyone at this point.

Never did she truly feel so alone.

God-okay. Okay, next best thing. What was the next best thing?

River. Ken.

Regroup, find the road. If she could manage both of those almost simultaneously, all the better. Figure out a way to get past that flash flood and _maybe_ just _maybe_ they could make it all the way back to the main road for help or something.

She turned around and let out a small sigh of acceptance.

“Okay. Okay, Steph. You can do this. Just need to...we just need to move in _this_ direction now.” She winced, knowing just how easy it is to get turned around in an unfamiliar area in the middle of nowhere. “...I think. I _hope._ ”

Another look around proved even locating the giant mansion was impossible now, anything at the moment was too blocked off from view by mist and trees. She shook her head and began plodding back in the direction she came, though couldn’t shake the feeling of being on edge-and rightfully so.

Every branch that shook lightly with the wind, every drop that fell from wet limbs and splashed down on the ground cover of leaves, every tiny footstep or flap of wings from some random animal easily raised her anxiety-but actually _registering_ the latter as animals subsequently put her on some level of ease. If there were animals in the area, she had the feeling that the monster was not. No, a _silent_ forest was what she had to listen for. _That_ was what would truly be alarming.

It helped that there were the occasional muddy footprints that she left behind, but they were all sporadic at best thanks to the thick layer of fallen leaves. So she struggled to find landmarks as she walked, but it wasn’t helping that everything blended together and practically looked alike. Not to mention she hardly had much of an opportunity to get a good look at much of anything while bolting through the forest so…

But what else could she really do?

She had to keep moving.

She couldn’t just stop and do nothing.

Everyone was counting on her and Ken to get help.

And that was what they were gonna do.

Of course, the entire time she walked and mused things over, she wondered what she would or even _could_ do if she actually _did_ encounter the monster here in the woods. That thing had fingers like scythes and far more reach than she ever would. And meanwhile all she really had was…

Was…

A knife.

Ugh, how was it that all the guys ended up getting the _good_ weapons?

But then again, that _was_ how she ended up wandering around out here. That _was_ part of the reason she and Ken were sent away: because they didn’t have good weapons on them. Because they wouldn’t do as well in a fight.

...Maybe it was time to change that a bit.

Even if it was only a little, then maybe, just maybe-

Her eyes swept the area, trying to find a decent stick-or possibly even better, a limb-lying on the ground. Failing that, her eyes trailed the trees, trying to find a low-hanging branch, perhaps, something that was decently thick and might hold up in a fight-even if only for a few seconds. If she could find what she needed, it’d actually help in more ways than one-she could also double it as a walking stick. But she’d have to prep this thing on the go, as who knew what Ken’s situation was at this point.

“Come on, come _on,_ ” she whispered under her breath.

She suddenly tripped and stumbled, stopped to look at the ground behind her. A low bump rose up from the ground, the thick, wet leaf blanket concealing anything that might’ve been underneath.

Could’ve been a root but then again…

She kicked forward, nudging some of the leaves out of the way and revealing exactly what she was looking for: a stick that was long enough, solid enough, and straight enough. She pulled it up off the ground, ignoring the unpleasant feeling of wet soil clinging to it and ran her hand down it a few times in an attempt to fix that. She then moved to brush her hand off on her shirt-her pants were still stupid dirty from hopping out of the car in the middle of the flash flood.

But she didn’t waste much time doing that. Using her knife as she walked, she began chipping away at one end of the stick as quickly as she possibly could. This was getting _way_ down to basics and even as thick as the branch was, she had the feeling she’d only get one or two shots in with this thing; she was sure the monster would still be able to break it or slice it up with its fingers.

Fair enough. She didn’t really want to go up against the monster directly anyway, or even seek him out.

Her primary job was to find Ken. Find Ken and then get help.

So she walked.

And she walked.

Morning was finally starting to rise somewhat, just above the dawn when she finally whispered, “ _Where the heck am I?”_

She paused for just a moment at this point, straining her ears for really _anything_. Even though some patches of the fog had lifted, it hadn’t done much in the way of helping her orient herself and pinpoint her location in the slightest.

God, why did they have to split up?

Splitting up was _not_ a good idea by any means.

And then that’s when she heard it.

Water.

Rushing water it almost sounded like?

She looked off towards her right and moved to head in its direction, feeling an odd swell of relief when the newly-formed creek that took their car and almost drowned them came into view.

Oh god. _Okay._

 _This_ was actually something that could help her.

She wasn’t sure if she’d hung too far right at this point to have missed the road as she walked, but she didn’t think she did-not after all the running she did initially. If nothing else, this would make a continuous landmark.

Once again-as she had gotten into doing as a habit every now and then-she paused and looked around. “ _Ken?_ ” she called out softly, but got no reply. She made a slight face at this but then shook her head with a sigh, deciding she’d follow the creek.

If all else failed, if it brought her to the road, that’d actually be helpful enough.

As she continued to move, she struggled to keep her mind occupied and tried to push aside the permeating worry for her husband, for Ken, for the others by running through survival options and things she could possibly do to help her situation with what little she actually had.

Included in all that, what could she even really do if she stumbled across Ken bleeding out and dying?

The answer was really _not much_ , and she sincerely hoped that wouldn’t end up being the case.

It was with a start when she suddenly realized her foot hit a clear patch; she looked down and then around to see that it stretched underneath the water and back out, onwards in both directions. It was almost easy to miss-muddy and covered with branches and leaves-but _it was a road._ Or at least, as they now knew, a long, _long_ driveway. That sight alone almost made her collapse in relief, although the current and width of the creek was something of a mood-killer. She already swam in it once, she’d be willing to do it again if she had to-but if there was a way of avoiding it, she would. With luck, maybe the current wasn’t nearly as strong as it looked? Maybe it slowed down a bit after the storm. But overall, it wasn’t exactly optimal and she had the feeling it definitely wasn’t safe.

 _Still_ , it was something. The main road couldn’t be too far off from them now.

“Thank god,” she whispered under her breath, peering down the driveway in the direction of the road.

They’d figure out a way across one way or another.

Now she just needed to find Ken.

She continued to hurry along, glancing down at her stick and finding it was about at the point she needed, with a nice, flat little shelf-at least, enough to what was about satisfactory. She’d paused for just a moment, pulling the parachute cord bracelet off her wrist.

“Was always told this was gonna come in handy someday…” she whispered as she undid the bracelet and proceeded to position the knife before wrapping the cord firmly and tightly around the branch and handle to secure it.

It wasn’t going to be stable.

It wasn’t going to be sturdy.

It wasn’t going to be reliable.

But it did provide some range from the monster should she encounter it and by golly it helped with providing a spoonful of psychological comfort. It was _something_ , at least.

With this newly-created spear in hand, she hurried along the creek’s edge, straining her ears for any further sound.

“Ken!”

“Ah-yeah-!”

The call was somewhere to her left, drawing her attention. She glanced over at the creek before pulling herself away, heading just a ways back into the trees. It didn’t sound like it came from too far off, at least. Hopefully Ken was close.

“Ken?”

“Yeah, Steph, I’m here-” Ken replied. Stephanie followed the sound of his voice, but soon she didn’t even need to.

Splashes of blood on the leaves provided enough of a trail to find him. Her pace quickened, hurrying to half-jump, half-climb down a small sudden dip with feet sliding a bit. She hardly even waited to come to a stop as she maneuvered around to where the wall of dirt and tangled roots of the dip curved in and up just a bit to provide a spot for Ken to lean against.

“Oh, jesus, Ken-!” Stephanie exclaimed, hurrying forward with wide eyes. She didn’t see the point of entry; that monster must’ve gotten him from the back. “Here, here, lemme see-careful-” She moved him forward just a little bit to check his back, seeing deep gashes torn down his back. “Oh my god, _Ken_ -”

“That bad?” Ken asked, unable to keep some of the apprehension out of his voice.

“Probably not as bad as you think, but _yeah_ , still pretty bad,” Stephanie replied. She frowned and let out a sigh. “I don’t think I have any bandages on me-” She paused to glance around. “What happened to the monster?”

“I think he’s still wandering around in the area, I just...I couldn’t keep running anymore-”

Stephanie nodded with a newfound alertness, glancing around as she settled him back against the wall of dirt. “Got it.” She frowned as her mind raced. This was exactly what she was worried was gonna happen. “Well I can’t just leave you here.”

“Steph-”

Stephanie shook her head determinedly. “It’s not happening.” Looking around, she added, “Now look, I found the driveway that will take us back to the main road.” As she did she pulled off her jacket; it wasn’t _clean_ and he definitely needed stitches but they were really going to have to make do with what they had here. Hopefully it would really only be a temp fix at this point either way. “We’ll be able to get help from there. Or sooner, if Felix maybe gave you his cell phone?”

Ken paused as he registered the reason to the question, then shook his head. “Nah. Actually I kinda just realized that myself.” He winced. “I guess neither of us have European phones. Wish we’d thought about that before breaking away from the others.”

“We were kind of having a moment of panic considering what was going on. I don’t think anyone really considered the issue,” Stephanie replied, examining her jacket and debating the best way to cut it up and make bandages.

Ken watched, finally asking, “So you said not as bad as I probably think-so it’s likely not gonna kill me?”

Stephanie shook her head. “No, thankfully. But you’re definitely gonna need stitches and _soon._ I need you back up and moving; we _need_ to get to that road.” She paused before adding, “At the very least, we can’t have you crashing around here. Not with that monster roaming around.”

Ken made a face, silent for a long moment. When he finally spoke, he hesitantly suggested, “Maybe...maybe you _should_ leave me here.”

Stephanie frowned. “What? No.” She shook her head. “No way.”

“Steph, it’s just-” Ken sighed. “I don’t know if I can even make it to the road, nevermind crossing water. Even _with_ your help. And if that monster shows up?” He shook his head. “We’d both be sitting ducks.”

“Yeah, well I’m not just leaving you out here either,” Stephanie argued, a frown settling on her features. Logically he had a point.

That didn’t make it any more palatable.

The determination didn’t leave her eyes.

“We’re all in this together-look. We can at least try, alright? Just try.”

“And if Philippe comes up on us?”

“If he does, we’ve got a spear,” Stephanie explained as she moved to try and help him up as best as possible. She made a slight face at the lack of reassurance this provided-she could see it in his expression, too-and added, “C’mon man, it’s better than nothing. And hey, not to mention, this thing is going to help you walk a bit. Can you stand?”

Ken attempted to straighten with a small hiss of pain. “Oh-it’s painful,” he admitted.

Stephanie looked around, then passed the spear to the man. “Here, try this. It might help.” As she watched him lean a bit on the stick, she added, “I made sure to grab a stick that could double as a walking stick.”

“Good call.”

“Yeah. Good call.” Stephanie nodded in agreement as she watched him. “Well?”

“I mean, it still hurts but…” Ken attempted to shrug, winced at the effort and stopped. “If I’m careful I can maybe do the walking. I still don’t know about crossing water though.”

“We’ll see what happens,” Stephanie replied, moving to walk alongside him to offer a bit of support when needed, being careful not to leave him behind. As they walked, she looked around. “What happened to Philippe?”

Ken shook his head. “I lost him,” he explained. “For a little while, at least. It wasn’t too long after he caught me on the back-I managed to take a few turns before tripping on a root and going over a short ledge.” Noticing Stephanie’s look, he added, “Which was about as painful as it sounds, yeah. I rolled under there and listened-it eventually got to a point where I couldn’t hear him anymore, at least.” He glanced around before adding, “I’m sure he’s still wandering around the area though.”

“Right. Alright, yeah, I figured.” Stephanie nodded as her suspicions were confirmed. “He’s probably still in the area at least. And all that actually explains the mud and leaves on you.” She took the opportunity to awkwardly brush some of it off his back and shoulder, trying as best she could to be careful not to brush too much if any into his injury.

“So if we come across him at all…?”

Stephanie winced a bit at this question, glancing over at him. “Can you _run?_ ” she asked, doubt already toing her tone.

Ken winced as well as he looked back at her. “You really want the honest answer to that question?”

“Yeah. Okay.” Stephanie’s lips pursed. “If we come across him, I’m gonna need to take the spear back for a minute.”

Ken’s eyes widened a bit. “Are you _nuts?_ That _thing_ would slice you up into pieces!”

“Well I’m not just gonna leave you to die either,” Stephanie countered resolutely. She shook her head. “We’ll deal with the problem when the time comes. In the meantime, let’s just try and make it to road as quickly as possible.”

The pair hurried as best they could back in the direction of the creek and began following it back toward the road.

“I’m actually a little surprised the people planning on showing up today aren’t here yet. Unless they did and got stopped by the creek? Surely they would’ve seen and tried getting some help or something,” Stephanie noted. “Weren’t there gonna be others at your livestream thing?”

“Ah, yeah, Emma and PJ?” Ken explained, struggling to keep the pain out of his voice. “I mean, I think it’s still probably pretty early in the morning, yeah. So they should be here any minute now to help set up-but I really don’t think that’s happening. Not in this house.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Stephanie muttered.

“Marzia, Signe and Robin _were_ supposed to show up last night though. I think Amy and Kathryn were planning on coming up too. And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they didn’t, but…”

Stephanie looked over towards the water again as she considered. “I dunno how much it was storming when everyone got here, but speaking from experience: it _was_ really coming down last night. You could barely see the road as it was, and that was on the _main_ road. They probably decided to hold off until the rain slacked off some and it got a bit lighter in the day.”

“So really any hour now, if that’s the case,” Ken noted.

“Again, I guess it’s possible that they already did and then went to go for help,” Stephanie pointed out, almost daring to sound hopeful.

“‘Help’ is probably gonna need to be a swat team and then some if they try and get into that house, let’s be real here,” Ken pointed out. “There’s still all those monsters inside, even without Abby and Philippe. I mean, Ryuuzu alone-” But his words fell off into silence when he noticed Stephanie’s tense look, remembering her husband was one of the ones in there right now. He gave himself a swift mental kick before attempting to add with some reassurance, “...I’m sure the others are going to be fine though. They won’t let themselves get caught. We’re all used to surviving in there.”

Stephanie swallowed and looked away. “I _really_ hope so. They’d better come out okay,” she replied softly. With a suddenness she looked back up and added, “There’s the road, or-well at least the driveway. It’s just up ahead. See?” She pointed just up ahead at the littered driveway. As they continued to near it, she mused, “I wonder if those monsters can actually cross water, anyway.”

“Did you test it out at all since-y’know- _surviving it?_ ”

Stephanie shook her head. “I didn’t, but safest bet is that the current is still pretty strong.” Moving to slip away from him and leave him with the spear for support when they finally made it onto the driveway, she added, “Hang on. Lemme check.”

Her eyes swept the area for another decent stick of width and length; she finally settled on a fallen tree limb in the middle of the driveway not far from them. It was a couple of minutes of pulling off branches from it but she finally pulled one of the longer, more solid branches away and headed back over to the creek.

“I mean-if it’s less than six inches at this point, even with a current, I think we could still technically be okay?” she offered hopefully.

Ken took in the sight-the fact that there was such a wide, long ditch that extended on in both directions and bordered on a trench was so obvious now. He wondered just how much of it was actually natural and how much Anti had dug up there. How did they pass over it without even realizing?

Well, hindsight was 20/20, he supposed.

All the same though, it warranted another mental kick to himself as he watched Stephanie approach the water’s edge with a frown. So focused he was on her test and his own thoughts that he didn’t hear the twig snap or see the movement until it rammed right into him with a sharp feeling going through his shoulder and out his back until it was happening.

With a shout he flew back and toppled; his world spun. The spear-never even mind the spear, who even knew where it was. Instantaneously the world had become an explosion of spinning colors and shouts and screeches as he struggled to scramble back up into a sitting position. Pain seared through his shoulder but it was difficult to get a good look at it, at _anything_. In all the chaos he only managed to get out at least one clear shout: “STEPH!”

Suddenly the creature was off him, rolling but not nearly as off-balance as either of them would’ve hoped for. It rolled up into a crouch almost immediately, eyeing Stephanie with a slow tilt of the head as it seemed to examine and size her up. Stephanie stood nearby, just on the other side of Ken with her wide eyes glued to the creature, not daring to turn her sights away.

“Ken-” she began, mind racing for a strategy. Her fingers suddenly tightened on the branch she was using before suddenly flinging it straight at the monster and bolting for the dropped spear. The monster lunged but she took a page out of its own book, rolling away just in time so it hit dirt. She quickly scrambled back up to her feet, looking over at Ken with an expression of panic and worry. _Did he really look that bad?_

Regardless.

_At least now she had the spear._

The monster rose to its feet, straightened a bit to stare again and once more letting out that building, high-pitched whine. Stephanie shifted into the closest thing she could manage for a fighting stance, holding the spear-point out in front of her to point to the monster.

“That’s right,” she warned. She drew the spear back towards her side. “I’m armed now. Next time won’t be so easy.” Her eyes darted back to Ken for only a split second to give him a quick nod; Ken took the gesture as encouragement to back away from the scene. Although he struggled a bit too much to actually full-on get up, feeling a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him, he did manage to scoot back a few extra feet-for what little good it likely did him.

Noticing the monster’s attention had darted over to Ken as well, Stephanie decided to take the opportunity of distraction, bolting forward without warning with the spear pointed at the creature. Hearing her feet skid across the leaves, the creature whipped back around to face her, moving to bring its claws forward-but it wasn’t quite fast enough. The spear-tip embedded deep into the creature’s torso, sending it a step or two back as its arms flailed wildly, then moved inward to try and claw up the wielder that was suddenly within uncomfortably close proximity.

“Steph, move!” Ken called.

Stephanie wasted no time, bringing her foot up to collide further with the creature’s torso and stumble back with the force of the spearpoint coming loose. Backing away was like going through a malfunctioning food processor, with blades not quite close enough to completely shred her to ribbons but definitely enough to cut her up a good few times-and certainly not shallowy cuts either. She continued to back up until she was just out of reach and then some, pain-numbing adrenaline rushing through her veins as she surveyed the damage she managed to inflict.

It was indeed a torso hit, but it wasn’t quite what she really needed. No, clearly this thing was still up and moving and able to fight. The wound would-or at least _should_ hurt the monster-but it didn’t seem likely it was gonna full-on cripple or kill. No, she needed to aim higher next time.

She winced at the prospect of even needing to go in for a ‘next time’.

Her eyes flickered back over to Ken once more, only for a split second, but he met her gaze, glanced back at the monster then her again and nodded in understanding. She herself didn’t quite get what _that_ meant-and didn’t until Ken fished around in his pocket and pulled out one of the cherry bombs.

There was nothing to actually light it with, true, but he moved to try and throw it-winced when he realized that he couldn’t even seem to _feel_ his dominant arm-then switched over to his other to chuck the cherry bomb.

He missed with the first one, but second one made contact, jerking the creature’s attention back towards him.

“Hey!” he called over, glaring. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you not to hit a lady?!”

“ _Ken, what are you-?!_ ” Stephanie exclaimed, but it was too late to discourage him now. So instead she shook her head in disbelief, watching as Philippe took steps toward the injured man.

“That’s right, you ugly monster, there’s more than just _one_ of us in this fight,” Ken continued to egg on.

 _Now_ Stephanie knew the full extent of the understanding that was just exchanged. She tightened her grip on her spear, did her best to get a decent aim-she could attempt a throw and that’d be safer, but there was no guarantee (in fact, the chances were unlikely)-that she’d actually hit her target. It’d be too much of a risk; she needed to get up in there again.

Without warning Philippe snapped into a run, but now Stephanie was rushing forward to intercept, hoping and praying that she would by some miracle manage to hit on point. With a jolt they suddenly came to a stop, hearing noise echoing in her ears-was that her? Was that the monster? Both?-and she blinked several times upon realizing she was now almost right against its chest even closer than before. She could see its chest struggling to heave, hear its wheezing breaths and whimpers. As she looked up at it, she almost felt a pang of pity, even the edges of guilt-but in the end it was it versus them. This thing assured that.

“Steph!” Ken shouted, snapping her back to real time.

That was the point she actually realized _where_ she was, just how bad her position was once again.

She moved to shove it away with her foot again-this time placing her boot on the first injury just for good measure-and staggered back as the spear came loose. This time when she withdrew the spear it was without the knife and her eyes widened as a bad situation just became that much worse.

“ _Oh no-_ ” she muttered, but the creature was stumbling at this point as well.

She wasted no time.

They couldn’t afford for that thing to right itself again.

Drawing the stick back, she swung hard like a baseball player, straight at the creature’s head. The monster staggered sideways, enough for her to ram the stick forward again and catch the thing square in the chest. She didn’t stop at all in her momentum, continuing to push it forward until it was finally knocked off balance and toppled, shrieking and screeching and whining as it flailed evermore. Black liquid was oozing out of the wounds and starting to smear everywhere in the creature’s fit. The scythe-like fingers swung inward, cutting through the stick like it was nothing. Stephanie’s eyes widened and she took a generous step back for a moment, but upon seeing that it was already starting to get back up, she edged carefully around it, grabbed what remained of her stick with both hands, and slammed it down hard into the thing’s head.

That seemed to stun the creature for a moment, but it was definitely still alive. As she saw the arms start to move again, she drew the stick back up, swung it back down hard. The arms thrashed without warning, catching her across the stomach and ribs-she ignored it and brought the stick down again hard. Once, twice, three more times _at least_ until the thing finally wasn’t moving and there was a black, bloody mess on the monster, the ground-everywhere.

Stephanie stood there for several long moments, the stick slipping from her hands as she caught her breath, eyes wide and borderline wild. It was Ken calling her name that finally brought back her awareness, and when she finally looked over at him, she saw he was gesturing to something. In a moment far longer than it should’ve taken, she realized he was indicating to her stomach, drawing her eyes downward. She looked down, first off noticing that her clothes were covered in black stains, but then also that there was a gaping gash in her stomach that was already bleeding profusely, her own blood mingling with the creature’s. Her breath caught, but she tried in a frantic attempt to remain calm and shove down her rising panic. Her condition was pretty bad. _Ken’s_ condition was actually pretty bad too and already deteriorating. She was seriously gonna need help soon but-seeing where the creature had sunk clean into his shoulder and ripped out the claw, no, Ken was definitely first priority.

“Oh god-okay-” she began, rushing to his side as fast as she could manage, yanking off her jacket to ball up and press to his shoulder. As she bent over it was like the claws going straight into her stomach all over again, causing her breath to catch and the world to temporarily spin. The adrenaline was already starting to wear off-she suspected it was partly from the acknowledgement of her own wound in the first place.

“Is it really that bad?” Ken asked, eyeing her stomach wound. “I mean-Steph, your own injury-”

“It’s not that bad. Really.” She didn’t believe her own words-especially when she was having trouble keeping her words from staggering. But she tried sounding as resolute and certain as she could possibly muster in the situation. “My own wounds anyway. But-yeah, you’re pretty bad off right now. Can you try wiggling your fingers?”

Ken tried, he really did. But after a moment he grimaced. “No. Steph, I-I can’t feel my arm.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s what I was afraid of,” she muttered. She took a moment to look up, back down the driveway in the direction of the house. “I wonder how fast I could get Cry out here,” she mused, almost to herself.

Ken watched her for a moment before shaking his head. “Don’t,” he said. “If you go, you might not make it. Believe it or not you’re banged up pretty bad yourself.”

“I- _yeah_ but we have to do something,” Stephanie argued. And that wasn’t even just reassurance, they _needed_ to do something beyond just basics here. These were serious injuries and just sitting here would likely do them even more harm than good.

But she suspected she was the one more likely to make a trip.

She needed to ignore her own issues. Ignore her own pain, the fact that she was probably going to need stitches _at least_ for this new injury if it wasn’t healed up at all magically.

Ken watched her for another long moment before making a face and looking away. The pain was starting to fade out, all sound, darkness was starting to creep into his vision. His words came out a little slurred as he thought back to home, to his family, his career and friends and fans and videos. And as he did, he couldn’t help but smile slightly at the hindsight-although the look was too eclipsed with a grimace to tell. “You know, before all of this, I generally said I wouldn’t risk my life trying to help save someone else. Some video-it was a long time ago-”

She watched as she saw the man weaken, his eyes closing. “No, no-Ken. Ken! Don’t go to sleep, Ken, _don’t go to sleep-!_ ”

Oh god, and they were all _so close_ too.

They were literally _right by their escape._

No-no-no-oh god, what was she going to do? What _could_ she do?!

It was about that point that enough adrenaline ebbed away, eliciting a sharp, pained intake of breath in one of her attempts to move. It was too intense to ignore now. Her hand went to her own stomach, feeling herself double over in pain. “Oh- Oh-god- Oh god-”

She didn’t hear the car pull up on the other side of the water, the car doors open and shut.

She didn’t hear the voices calling out to them, first concerned, then panicked. She didn’t hear the few sets of footsteps making their way to the edge of the water until she heard the shouts.

“ _Ken! Stephanie?_ ”

And turning around, she saw the cavalry with a wave of relief: Signe, Robin, Marzia, Amy, Kathryn. A car was pulling up behind theirs, too, and she could distinctly see Emma and PJ moving to climb out of their own car. Robin was already making his way to the water and yanking off his jacket, calling back to the others to call 999 as PJ rushed close behind him doing similar.

Even from her sitting position, she wobbled, but at the sight of them, she couldn’t help but smile-although it bordered on loopy. She was feeling light-headed, dizzy. Everything was starting to spin. When she spoke, it was in a relieved whisper.

“What took you guys so long?”

And then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooboy. This chapter is a bit longer than usual but it didn't quite feel right to break it up into two sections. We finally have new people coming onto the scene though! Rejoice, as the cavalry has finally arrived! In seriousness though-I really want to thank all of you for your support and understanding with the real life events I mentioned in the last chapter. It really means worlds to me and as I've responded in some of the comments, I think making you guys happy helps lift up my own spirits a bit. And I have a bit of support over here as well, so it's another thing that's helping with healing. I'll take things easy in the meantime, but I think this and some other projects are doing me some good. So strap yourselves in, we're not done yet! We're in for a wild ride from here on out, so! Until then~


	52. Chapter 51

“Oh man-we should’ve restocked on our ammo before we left,” J-Fred remarked as he worked on reloading. “I’ve got one reload left, maybe two-it’s getting to the point where I really _can’t afford to miss._ ”

“You’re running low too?” Bryan asked as the two kept close to Cry and Matthias-the former of which was healing up the latter.

“Abby’s moving around too much and Ryuuzu’s too resistant to damage.”

“What’s our Plan B?” Matthias asked, grimacing as he felt a few deep gouges along his midsection heal up. “If we _have_ a Plan B?”

Cry did a sideways glance over at Ethan. “Ethan?” he called over.

Ethan took a couple of steps back, closer to the group as he sucked in a few deep breaths. He’d already unleashed several flurries of spritus verberare and infernus salo-and judging by his breathing, it was starting to take its toll. “I should’ve skimmed more through this book…” he muttered, his eyes flickering down to the pages as he stopped only a few feet short of everyone else.

“Gonna take that as a no. Uh-” Cry looked around as his healing continued. “Maybe if we can get them in an area that’s kinda hard to move around in-at least in terms of fighting Abby, that might actually help in limiting them enough so we can get a few decent hits on them.”

“And where exactly did you have in mind?” J-Fred asked, looking around as Abby began circling them like a sort of predatory cat and keeping his gun on her.

“Well woods would be best…” Cry began, his brows furrowing into a frown behind the mask.

“Wouldn’t work if we’re trying to keep them out here,” Bryan pointed out. “They can’t go past the wall, after all. If we wanna keep holding their attention, they're still gonna have to be able to reach us.”

“Ugh, this would help if we knew a bit of the area outside the house-” Matthias grimaced but felt the wound seal up the rest of the way and wasted no time to push himself up to his feet. His eyes swept the area, hand suddenly raising between J-Fred and Cry to point off in the distance. “Corner of the house. There’s a grove. Maybe the trees are close enough together that it’ll cause them some issues-it’s really the closest we’ve got to a forest, anyway.”

“Can we-”

“Shit-!”

_Bang!_

_“Defende nos!”_

J-Fred drew back sharply at the claw-tip that stopped inches from his face, then immediately yanked back as the smaller, slender monster reeled and staggered back with an angry hiss, black blood spilling out from between its lower ribcage. As Matthias stared at it with wide eyes-actually getting a decent close look at such a sight without being attacked-Cry and Bryan looked up, then over, seeing Ethan holding his hand high, palm flat. In front of them was also a giant hand-Ryuuzu’s-held oddly flat only inches from Ethan’s head.

“What-” Bryan began, blinking when he saw the air in front of them seemingly flicker a brief, translucent blue. He looked back at at Ethan, whose arm was starting to strain, buckling a little bit at the elbow. “Ethan-!”

 _“Shit-!”_ Cry exclaimed, looking around in some sort of way he could help. “Uh-Ethan?”

“Can we shoot out of this?” J-Fred asked, looking around at the two monsters. Matthias meanwhile tentatively reached out, fingers touching what felt like a cool, smooth barrier that only showed the faintest light blue in the air with pressure.

“I don’t think so,” Matthias warned.

“In that case-I’m not sure I’d try-” Ethan ground out, wincing. “To be honest, I'm not really sure of anything because I don’t remember ever actually using this spell before-!” The strain on his arm was lifted as Ryuuzu drew his arm back, but then his eyes widened as the monster’s hand clenched into a fist and slammed down on the barrier again. Around them they could hear a crack that sounded like that of bordering glass, and on the impact site they got the fleeting image the air splintering and spidering around it.

 _“Is there any way we can help?”_ Cry asked.

Ethan looked around wildly, but that was interrupted as the fist came down again with even more spidering cracks. Another hit; Ethan winced as he could _feel_ the magic projected around them breaking piece by piece, the magic he cast around them all starting to fracture like thin glass. His eyes flickered back over to Ryuuzu, watching as the fist pulled back again. “You guys might be onto something. I really don’t think we can maintain this for very long. We need to get these guys over to that grove.” Another fist slammed down onto the barrier; his eyes dropped down to the pages of the book in a desperate skim of anything else on the page that might somehow be useful as a cringe fell over his face and he struggled to keep down any rising panic. “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Guys I really don’t like this. We should probably hurry.”

Bryan looked over at Abby, watching as she worked to try and recover. “I agree. If we’re doing this, we better move; preferably while at least one of them is still off-balance.”

“Is everybody ready? Matthias-you’re all healed up-?” _Crunch!_ Ethan’s face paled a bit as he watched the book topple from his free hand, landing face-up and open but on a different page. “Oh, _c’mon-!”_

“We’re ready, yeah!” Matthias replied.

Ethan glanced back at the others, then down at the book, trying to think on the fastest way he could reach down and grab that book and get out with the others without getting pulverized first. But as his eyes fell upon the new page of the book, they did come to rest on a grouping of words-

His eyes flickered back up at Ryuuzu, taking in the giant form. There were a few arrows sticking out of the monster, a few gunshots. Some gashes in the creature and some burns with blood trickling down its body-but it didn’t look anywhere _close_ to slowing. Judging by those slams it was inflicting on his shield, it didn’t really feel that way either.

They could get to the grove-this thing was just gonna uproot whatever trees it needed to in order to get to them. They could pour the rest of their ammo into this thing and maybe they’d slow it down-but by the way it was looking, it was never gonna be enough. _And_ they were still gonna have to deal with Abby, _and_ his magic was weakening-

“Oh...shit…” he whispered. “Oh no. Oh shit.” He drew in a shaky deep breath, trying to put as much conscious focus into his magic as he could. He had _no idea_ if this was gonna work, but if glancing through the pages and his general understanding of the basics it spoke of told him anything, it...should? Maybe?

The bottom edges of the barrier seemed to fray upward somewhat, particularly behind him-and in the process, the barrier above thickened, some of the cracks sealing up partway. When he spoke next, his voice was a bit strained-and not just in result to the physical strain of maintaining the spell. “Guys-”

“What are you doing?” Matthias asked, glancing back at him.

“I think I’ve got the barrier pulled up a bit towards the back. Should give you a headstart. You said it yourself, we need to move while these guys are off-balance, so-”

“Ethan, we’re not leaving you-!”

“Either most of us get to the grove or none of us do!” Ethan shot back. “And then all of this is just gonna be for nothing. They’ll go after the others right after they’re done with us and-” He shook his head. “Even if I focus a lot of the magic to certain areas-and I’m _not good at this, you guys-_ ” Another slam down on the barrier, replacing the cracks that had disappeared. “It’s not gonna last long.” He swallowed hard before adding, “Don’t worry, I’ll be right on your heels once you guys have managed to put some distance. But you gotta be fast, alright?”

J-Fred glanced over at Abby, who was starting to straighten again and quickly fired a shot at her torso; the creature nimbly shifted but was knicked deep in her hip. “You’d better hold to that, Ethan,” he said.

Matthias exchanged reluctant glances with the others before nodding, looking back at Ethan. “Three minutes. Three minutes and we’re coming back if you’re not with us by then.”

“Yeah, alright, I got it, just go!”

Team Edge dashed toward the trees with Abby on their heels but Cry lingered, still standing by him. His eyes stared down at the book before turning back towards the blunette.

“Ethan-”

“Cry, _go!_ ”

“I-” Cry shook his head, quickly gesturing down to the book. “No way! I’ve seen enough of Jack’s memories to know how you make this play. You don’t change man! And I’m not gonna let you- _You can’t!_ There’s gotta be another way, just- _No!_ ”

“Someone’s gotta take care of Ryuuzu. You guys said it yourselves, we’re barely making a dent as it is. And we’re about out of pretty much everything.”

“ _No man left behind, Ethan, we all agreed on that-”_

“And I’ll try to hold to that agreement, Cry, you know that. But you heard Jack. If I have a lot of magic then sometimes-” Ethan shook his head, struggling to shove back his own doubt. “And in this loop I think I do. So I’m gonna do this and...and you’re gonna keep the others alive.” He winced. The barrier was starting to fail; literally any second now. “You guys make sure to defeat Abby, okay? Should I survive this, I’m _really_ not gonna be of much help regardless.” Glancing over his shoulder at Cry as he summoned magic into his hands, the blue that seemed to pulse through his veins started fading to an intense white. “Now _go!”_

Cry hesitated a second longer, but finally took a couple steps back, pointing to Ethan. “ _Shit._ Don’t you die on us, man!”

With those words, he turned back in the direction of the others and raced after them as fast as his legs could carry him, making the silent promise to return in those three minutes Matthias had promised.

Ethan turned back to Ryuuzu as his veins surged with white-hot magic, as it started to emanate from him and filled his eyes, as he could hear a rising pitch around him. He wasn’t sure if only he could hear it or if it was the magic itself but it was ever-building, and as he looked up, he saw Ryuuzu draw his fist back once more.

Oh man.

He didn’t wanna do this.

_He really didn’t wanna do this._

_But what choice did he have?_

“One more time, Ryuuzu. Let’s finish this.”

The fist smashed down one more time and this time shattered the magical barrier around him.

Ethan threw his hand forward.

“ _Aboleo!”_

* * *

“Fuck. Fuck this fucking house, goddammit!” Felix exclaimed with frustration as they headed into the back rooms, shaking his head. “This place is too fucking big, we’re never gonna find him in time!”

“I agree, there’s gotta be a faster way to do this,” Mark seconded worriedly.

“Well splitting up is out of the question,” Tyler said firmly. “Anti probably knows we’re back in here by now. All the monsters are gonna be on high alert and I wouldn’t be surprised if Anti’s let them _all_ out at this point. You saw how many were in that cage-we haven’t even run across all of them personally.”

“Yeah, splitting up would kinda be the dumb thing to do,” Mathew said, although he sounded just as worried if not even a little distracted, brain racing at a way to cover this all faster. “I don’t think there’s really any way around doing it this way though. We need to stick together, both for the sake of defense and having a healer on hand.”

“Dammit. _Fuck,_ ” Mark cursed, running his hands back through his hair anxiously.

“Well, on the bright side,” Mathew noted hopefully, “We have two prospective areas literally almost right next to each other, so the back rooms should be rather quick.”

“Theoretically,” Mark grumbled before finally letting out a sigh and shaking his head. “Let’s just hurry up and get this over with. We don’t got a whole lot of time.”

The group hurried to check the cell towards the back-no luck. “That’s another one down…” Mathew muttered, moving to head down the ladder. “C’mon.”

The group hurried down the ladder, Mark looking around with a frown. “Seriously, the hell is this place?” he muttered as he hurried down the hall. “Jack? You here?”

The group filtered into the annex library and then to the lab. Once again, nothing. Although-

“Guys, some stuff’s gone,” Mathew pointed out, looking around with a frown.

“What?” Felix asked, turning his attention to the theorist. “What do you mean ‘stuff’s gone’?”

“Just...stuff, there isn’t so much clutter.” Mathew shook his head, looking over at Tyler. “Tell me I’m not wrong. There’s stuff missing in here, right?”

Tyler nodded, a troubled frown on his face as he eyed the cleaner patches in the thick layer of dust on the tables and various other surfaces. “No, there’s definitely things missing,” he agreed. He let out a sigh. “Shit.”

“But at the end of the day, no Jack,” Felix remarked.

Mathew frowned. “No Jack. But this does rule out three out of four of our possible locations.”

“The top fuckin’ floor,” Felix concluded, making a face. He let out a frustrated sigh, moving to pace a little. “Goddammit. We’re going straight into an ambush.”

“As armed up as we are, it’s not gonna be enough to survive all those monsters on the top floor,” Tyler warned. “Especially if he opens the door to the cell up there.”

Mathew was silent for a moment as he thought on it before his eyes lit up with an idea. “...Guys, we need to make a quick trip to the bathroom.”

“What? Mat, now is not the time,” Mark scolded.

Mathew shook his head. “No, not for that-I think there might be something in there that could very well save our lives if we head up there.” Hurrying back to the ladder and moving to climb up, he said, “C’mon.”

The group hurried back up to the first floor and out of the back rooms, out into the main hall and then down the corridor to the bathroom.

“What’s your plan?” Tyler asked as they rushed to the bathroom.

“Mirrors. Remember what Jack said? The monsters get funky around mirrors,” Mathew pointed out.

“That’s kinda taking a big risk,” Mark pointed out. “If one or two of us is carrying a big mirror and it doesn’t work-”

“Then we drop the thing and switch over to Plan B.” Felix made a face. “Fuck man, I guess it’s better than nothing. Worst case and it doesn’t work, they’re still just as likely to kill us if we didn’t.”

The group hurried into the bathroom, Mark’s eyes sweeping over the mirror for a moment before he reached forward. “Alright-let’s get this thing off, yeah? C’mon.”

Felix moved to grab the other end. “On three?” he suggested. “One, two…” The two lifted the old wooden frame off the wall. “Three… Ugh, it’s a bit heavy.”

“You gonna need help with that?” Tyler asked.

Felix shook his head. “I got it, let’s just go,” he replied. As they headed out of the room, he added, “This is either gonna be really clever or _really stupid._ ”

“Let’s hope it’s more of the former,” Mark noted as they headed back to the main hall and upstairs. “Something tells me we’re going to find out sooner than later.”

“Fingers crossed this works, guys,” Mathew muttered as they made their ascent.

“We still got the keys?” Felix asked. “Just in case Anti locked the doors?”

“Yeah-though if he locked the doors to the main hall on the top floor, I dunno how we’re gonna get in,” Mark pointed out. “We don’t exactly have twelve people to trigger everything again, remember?”

“If that’s locked, we’ll figure something out,” Mathew assured. “Something tells me it’s not gonna be though. Especially if Anti’s leading us all into an ambush.”

“Guys, I hate to even bring this up, but…” Tyler frowned. “What happens if we’re too late?”

“Don’t even say that,” Mark muttered harshly, shaking his head. “Again, if we’re too late, we’ll figure something out. We’ll find some way or another to reverse the process. One way or another.”

At that point all conversation fell silent, especially with the efforts of rushing and while carrying a heavy mirror. They made it up to the second-to-last floor surprisingly sooner than they expected, Mathew glancing worriedly over at everyone else.

“I don’t like this,” he muttered. “We haven’t run across any trouble yet.”

“We _are_ heading into a trap,” Felix muttered. “No way he isn’t expecting us. _Goddammit._ ”

“It’s too late to go back now,” Mathew remarked, looking over at everyone. “We ready to do this? Any last words?”

“Keep that book ready,” Mark replied. “Nobody die. And remember: _no man left behind._ ”

“Easier said than done, but I’ll do my best,” Mathew replied with a nod. “We all will.”

The group hurried into the room with the code, headed up the staircase and into the puzzle room. It wasn’t as fast going as they preferred with the large mirror in hand, but hopefully it would be worth it in the end.

Felix silently held up a hand before passing his end of the mirror over to Tyler and heading quickly over to the door. When he reached it, he opened it just slightly to peer out into the large hall-the lights had been turned off. Quickly shutting the door again, he turned back to the others, a look of anxiety on his face. “ _Fuck._ Asshole shut off the lights in there. If they’re running loose out there, mirror ain’t gonna work unless they can see their reflections.”

“Do we know of a lightswitch in there?” Mark asked quietly, shifting his grip a little on the mirror. “Anywhere?”

“I don’t think any of us were exactly looking for one when we were in there,” Tyler murmured.

Mathew frowned for a moment, considering before flipping the book open.

“Mat-” Mark began.

“We need light,” Mathew interrupted. “And we’re probably going to need healing. Odds are I’d probably have to use this spell sooner than later regardless.” His eyes flickered over to Tyler. “Tyler-your sword-”

Tyler frowned hesitantly, but then passed his side of the mirror back over to Felix and hurried over to hold up his katana. Mathew winced in anticipation as he held his hand out, cut his finger just a thin sliver with the blade. He quickly decided not to dwell on it and turned his attention back to the book. “Alright, so...okay. How did Jack and the others do this exactly?”

Putting his finger down on the clock, he moved to trace the numbers, turning the hands counterclockwise. Gold sparked around the clock; he lifted his hand and pulled the outline up off the inner cover with a bit of effort. Focusing, the gold bubbled outward. It wasn’t a big healing bubble, but it was something and it certainly provided more all-around light than a flashlight-at least within their immediate circle.

“I think the monsters are still gonna have to be closer than comfort to look into the mirror,” Mathew pointed out, struggling to keep the uncertainty that threatened to bleed into this voice. “But it’s still better than nothing.”

“Yeah, well if anyone sees the fuckin’ lightswitch, somebody hit it. Please?” Felix suggested.

“I think we should travel along the wall as much as possible anyway,” Tyler suggested. “Give them less angles to come at us from.”

“I was about to say the same thing,” Mark agreed. “Let’s make our way across the hall as fast as we can and get into the room at the end. We’ll shut the door from there and hope the lights are on.”

“And that we can put a lock on it,” Mathew agreed. “Keep as many monsters from entering for as long as possible.”

“Well we know Ryuuzu is outside for the time being, so we’ve got that going for us, at least,” Tyler pointed out.

Felix frowned, eyeing the door, but finally nodded, looking back at everyone else. “Alright everybody. Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Figured I'd get this chapter up and posted; I'm seeing Jack's show tonight, so it seemed appropriate~ There was just a little bit of a stall because the first half of this chapter went through a small overhaul. But all and all, we're just a few chapters to wind down, so brace yourselves and armor up your feels for just a little while longer! In the meantime, thanks to everyone for the kudos and comments and overall support-it really means a lot to me, and I couldn't get anywhere near as far as I have with this fic without you. And holy frick, I'm seeing more fan stuff and it's _amazing!_ Go check out the stuff being posted up in the comments below, it's really good! Honestly I'm as excited seeing the stuff you all put out as you guys are whenever I put out a new chapter. Anyway! I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as I can. Until then!


	53. Chapter 52

Mathew stepped out in front and opened the door, crossing the threshold with his hand of light held out in front. The illumination indeed only reached a small area, but he truly hoped it would be enough. Reaching for the wall next to him for guidance with his free hand, he stepped aside to let in the pair with the mirror next, finally followed by Tyler. They got maybe two and a half feet or so as their eyes struggled to at least somewhat adjust to the lack of light when they first started noticing the sounds.

Footsteps, hisses, groans and clicking. All manner of eerie noises came from that dark void, and it wasn’t until Felix finally gave the others a slight nervous nudge that they began moving again, all of them trying to remain as silent as possible.

One of the monsters came racing up and the others flinched-but a foot and a half away and the monster suddenly came to a stop, almost entranced. It wasn’t the tallest creature, but there was spikes running down from its shoulders and down along its back, extending out from its wrists. This was definitely one they’d never seen before, at least as far as this loop went. But instead of attack them, the monster stared at its own reflection, seeming almost confused.

Curious, Mathew leaned forward a little, just around the edge of the mirror’s frame to get a decent look into it. The reflection wasn’t clear, oddly more so staticky than anything. But he could still see through the light showering of static what was staring back, and it certainly wasn’t a monster.

It was a person.

There was a person staring back, mimicking every move and stance that the monster made.

It was a young man, dressed in dated clothing that looked to be over a century old. Hair cut neat, eyes blue, expression confused and mesmerized. Mathew stared at the reflection for a few long moments with wide eyes, then looked over at the monster, then back at the reflection again before finally turning his eyes back to the group. In an instant it hit him, something that Tyler said earlier, something Stephanie had mentioned before they left their safe haven for good.

“ _Dark blood_ ,” he whispered.

Felix frowned. “What?” he asked.

“Guys...these monsters. _These monsters were people.”_

Mark’s eyes went wide briefly before settling into a frown. “What do you-what are you talking about?” he whispered.

“I think these monsters are what happens to Anti’s victims. Once he’s done whatever he needs to do to completely steal their identity? They transform into _monsters._ ”

“Shit!” Mark hissed, a new panic entering into his eyes.

“In which case we _really_ need to hurry. Right now,” Tyler instructed, giving a nod towards the other end of the hall. “Go.”

“What happens if we move though?” Felix whispered. “Is it going to actually follow its reflection?”

Mathew hesitated before shaking his head. “There’s no guarantee,” he replied honestly with a small wince.

Tyler looked a bit uneasy, frowning silently. Finally he asked, “What are the odds these monsters would be able to become human again?”

Mathew was silent, knowing the weight of that question and suspecting the consequences of an answer. After careful consideration, he replied softly, “I don’t think it’d be very high.”

“Tyler-” Mark whispered, but Tyler grimaced and raised his sword, pointing the tip as accurately as he could manage at an angle and eyeing the creature.

“I’m sorry,” Tyler muttered. “I hope you find peace in your escape from this nightmare.”

Before anyone else could react, he shoved the blade forward, into the monster’s chest. It went in at an angle, but if the monster’s anatomy was still anything remotely still human, there was no doubt the sword went straight through the heart. Tyler let out a shaky exhale, hesitating for a moment as the monster’s knees weakened before withdrawing the sword entirely to allow the monster to fully drop.

“Tyler…” Mark murmured softly, but Tyler frowned and shook his head.

“ _Let’s go._ We need to save Jack before he becomes one of those...one of those _things._ ”

“Agreed. _Go,”_ Felix ordered, giving another nudge to get the group moving again. The four started sidling again, slow and careful when they heard something sliding across the floor.

“What the fuck-?” Felix began in a whisper.

“I don’t see it,” Mark whispered.

“I _hear_ it. It’s close,” Mathew pointed out, giving his hand a slow, sweeping wave across the area. “Where _is_ it?”

“Ohhh, I don’t like this,” Felix whispered nervously.

“To the right,” Tyler suddenly whispered, straightening a bit and tightening his grip on the katana. “Coming in closer.”

“I still don’t see it,” Mark whispered.

“There’s another one coming up on the left,” Mathew whispered.

“What happens if we get more monsters than will fit in the mirror?” Felix whispered. “It’s a big mirror but-”

“If that happens, we do whatever we need to survive,” Tyler murmured. “Just keep moving and hopefully too many of them won’t hone in on us at a time.”

The group continued to move as another one came up on them with all curved limbs that tapered into blades on one side, like a head and torso with scythe blades for arms and legs. Two more seeming blades dangled loosely from its head. This time the person that stared out of the mirror was a woman from what looked to be the 1930s or so with two long brown braids, aged probably no more than thirty or so. Again, the creature stood mesmerized by the reflection, wide green eyes peering back.

And again, Tyler stabbed it through the chest. By his expression, the act didn’t seem to get any easier.

“I _still_ hear that dragging noise coming over from the right,” Felix whispered.

“Try not to focus on it, just keep going,” Mark replied grimly as the group tried picking up their pace a bit, making their way along the wall inch by inch.

From the corner of their eye they saw a shadow move, something short and low to the floor, something that definitely wasn’t of any sort of _human_ shape. The light of Mathew’s spell reflected against many eyes.

But the height did not allow it any actual view of itself in the mirror.

A noise of surprise slipped out as the creature suddenly shoved past Tyler’s leg and shot into Felix’s. The right side of the mirror plunged down as Felix lost his footing, Mark doing his best to desperately keep the suddenly now-uneven weight of the mirror from plunging down-though to no avail.

“Felix?!” Mark exclaimed, hearing cries of panic from the Swede beside him but now down towards the ground.

“Guys! Guys-!” Felix’s voice went from cleared to muffled in zero time, then clear again. “Get it off of me! Someone!”

“Oh, fucking-!” Mark moved to try and set the mirror down as Mathew pushed forward to move in closer to Felix and provide some light. In the chaos and confusion the mirror was knocked from Mark’s hand, toppling to the floor with a crash that was _way_ louder than anyone wanted. “Nonononono-!”

As Mathew moved in and brought the light of the spell forward, it illuminated the scene of one of the monsters on top of Felix, practically no more than a large, heavy, eye-colored blob attempting to smother the struggling man.

“Help-!” Felix cried as Tyler stepped forward to stab it, being as careful as he could manage not to stab their friend before withdrawing the sword, kicking the creature off with as much force as he could muster and stabbing it through again, then once more for good measure.

Tyler looked up and around as they could hear the sounds of the creatures getting louder, eyes wide as they swept the dark area in an attempt to get at least somewhat a bearing as to where everything was and to check if all his friends were accounted for.

“ _Guys?”_ he asked.

“I think everyone’s fine but the mirror-” Mark began, then just to be sure, “ _Felix?_ ”

“Fuck man, I’m fine, I’m fine, let’s just go, hurry!” Felix exclaimed as Mathew helped him up, panic now woven firmly into his voice.

Mark paused for a moment to reach down and grab the frame of the mirror, to pull it back up as the others hurried along keeping at least minimal contact with the wall. But the sound was that of glass falling out of its frame and to the floor-there wouldn’t be enough to protect them now. So instead he reached down and grabbed a long fragment-it’d be fragile and a pain in the ass to carry-especially without cutting one’s fingers-but he hoped this little bit that he could manage to salvage would provide enough distraction necessary to save their lives at the end of the day, should they need it.

One of the sounds of footsteps had stopped, and he could hear Tyler’s voice in the darkness just up ahead. “Mark, let’s go!”

“I’m going, I’m going!” Mark exclaimed, rushing after the group now with baseball bat in one hand, shard of glass in the other. The sounds of the monsters were now closing in, snarls and hisses and shrieks. Mathew was the first to reach the door, grabbing the knob and flinging the door open without any hesitation whatsoever. Light poured out of the doorway, illuminating the various monsters of the room, the source of all the noise.

Mark couldn’t decide if the actual _sight_ of the multiple monsters made everything better or worse.

The group rushed through the door, consequences be damned, followed after Mathew-who shut the door and winced as he did.

“Shit-there isn’t a lock to this door, is there?” he whispered as he searched for a way to make sure the door was locked or at the very least barricaded. His eyes lit up upon noticing a bloody clock drawing on the wall, eyeing it curiously for a moment and glancing down at the spell in his own hand before pressing it to the drawing. A click suddenly rang out and his eyes widened for a split second. _“Yes-!”_

“Jack!” Felix’s voice pulled his attention to what was going on behind him. Even with the spell, he wasn’t quite sure just how well that door was gonna hold-but at the moment it was really the best they could do.

Either way, it was better than nothing, right?

Turning to face the rest of the room, he could just barely see Jack magically pinned to the wall in a standing position, arms spread out from side to side and eyes black and borderline empty. Between them was Steve, and between them and the monster stood Anti. The green-eyed monster stared them down with a grin.

“I _knew_ you’d be back.”

 

* * *

 

J-Fred shook his head as he double-checked the reload on his gun and got into position. “I knew we should’ve hit up the vending machine in the bathroom,” he muttered.

“You mean bullets from the toilet,” Bryan pointed out in mild amusement.

“ _Yes_ , bullets from the toilet. That’s right.” The Fredrick shook his head, trying to remain positive in their situation as they stood in the middle of a grove. “At this point I’d take bullets from the tooth fairy and wouldn’t question it.”

“Bullets would probably be teeth.”

“Probably.” J-Fred couldn’t help but smirk in spite of himself and their situation as his eyes swept the area. “Where _is_ she?” His smirk faded just a bit as he added, “Where is Ethan for that matter?”

“Ethan’s going to be a minute,” Cry spoke up, although he sounded a little off and uncertain.

“Well there was an explosion in his direction not too long ago. We should probably hurry back and check on him-” Matthias began worriedly, suddenly interrupted by the sound of movement. Everyone turned to face the sound, alert and ready. The agile figure of Abby soon strolled into view, clicking noises sounding out as her head turned this way and that. The guys all exchanged looks before Bryan quickly moved to string another arrow and raised his crossbow, hoping to get a good hit on the monster. He pulled the arrow back taunt, waiting for J-Fred to take aim before letting it fly. Another bullet was shot off seconds after.

Abby moved to dive out of the way of the arrow only to get hit in the arm with the bullet and stagger back, giving an odd hiss and a sort of snarl as her attention seemed to focus in on them. Before they could blink she was bounding towards them, closing the distance with claws at the ready. The monster was already injured, that much was clear-a few hits to the torso, an injured arm and so on-but if there was one thing they were definitely learning from these monsters, it was that they could definitely take a lot of punishment.

“Guys-guys-guys-!” Bryan began, moving to push J-Fred back, but Matthias moved forward with the axe to give it a swing, the blade flying at the monster. It missed but the monster did manage to slash Matthias across the abdomen pretty deep; it was at this point Cry came rushing forward to heal up the older brother. J-Fred moved to take another shot now that the monster was much closer-even injured, the monster managed to angle itself impossibly out of the way of the shot.

“How-ah-how are we having this much trouble with this one?!” Matthias demanded with notes of pain as his abdomen got sealed back up.

“Because this one keeps moving out of the way!” Bryan replied, moving to load up the crossbow and jerk back as the monster bounded between the trees and took another swipe towards the group. “Cry!”

Cry jerked around, eyes widening behind the mask. “Shit-!”

“Here, move!” Matthias ordered, pushing the healer out of the way to get a closer swing in on Abby. The axe made impact, dragging through gray flesh and eliciting pained noises from the creature as she struggled to jerk away and dislodge the axe from her ribcage. In her flailing the creature stabbed forward, lodging claws deep into the Fredrick’s own chest.

“Matthias!” J-Fred exclaimed, moving to yank him back and ripping the claws out in the process. Matthias toppled back into him, not quite yet registering why it was suddenly so hard to breathe.

“Pass him over here!” Cry called over, reaching out to take the man and heal him up. Pulling Matthias back, the other two of Team Edge slipped between them and the monster, weapons at the ready.

“What happens when I run out of ammo?” J-Fred asked, making a face as he ducked back from a swipe.

“Uh-” Cry shrugged. “Punch her?” After a split moment of thought, he added, “Wait, no, don’t punch her. That’s probably a really bad idea. Just-uh-” He let out a sigh and shook his head. “Be careful? Look for rocks or something, I guess!”

“Very helpful!” J-Fred exclaimed as he took a few extra steps back, Bryan loading up his crossbow and taking another shot.

“I managed to find three arrows,” he reported. “I’m a little low myself.”

“Uh-well-I mean- _can you get any shot in close to her?_ Like, _super close?_ ” Cry paused. “Can you get a shot into her face, maybe?”

Bryan made a face at the suggestion as he drew back an arrow. “I mean-” he started, looking back at Abby with a second of hesitation. “I guess I can give it a try. I got limited shots though.” Turning to J-Fred, he asked, “Joey, think you can draw her in?”

J-Fred looked around for a moment, eyes scanning the ground before they finally settled on the dropped black-covered axe lying in the grass and mud. “Yeah! Got it!” he began, switching the safety on his gun and tucking it into the waistband of his pants. Matthias looked over with a hint of panic flashing through his eyes.

“Be _careful,_ Joey!” he called over.

“Just be ready to heal me up if anything happens!” J-Fred called back as he rushed forward. Readying the axe, he bolted forward to take a swing at Abby. “Let’s go!”

The monster leaned out of the way, waiting until he was just close enough to stab down. Her claws just missed most of his body but did manage to sink down deep into his left leg; he attempted to roll over and swing up the second her claws were at least mostly withdrawn. The swing went wild and missed (the monster managed to dodge that one fairly easily) and she gave a sharp kick to the man to knock him off balance and onto his back to expose softer targets. Her hand reared up to stab down but Bryan rushed forward, raising the crossbow and yanking back an arrow.

He leveled the arrow just in time for Abby to take notice, firing off a few clicks and jerking her head over in his direction to face him. The hand remained frozen in place for just a moment, precariously aimed downward at J-Fred. The Fredrick took this opportunity to roll just out of the way, into a spot he hoped was pretty much safety.

Now at the base of a tree, at any rate, he couldn’t exactly roll much further.

“Leave my brothers alone!”

With that Bryan let the arrow fly, the arrow going a short, straight distance and lodging into the monster’s head. Abby staggered back, hands slowly going to her head. Bryan wasted no time, quickly reloading his bow and taking closer steps now that the monster was distracted. He let another arrow fly, this one into the monster’s chest and then the last one soon following.

Abby staggered back a few more paces, letting out a hiss before toppling down to the ground and writhing. Cry made a face underneath his mask, frowning as he glanced over at the others before glancing over at Matthias to make sure he was fully healed, then walking forward to grab the dropped axe up from its spot in the grass. Hesitantly he made his way over to the monster, stopping by her side and being careful of the flailing claws. He was silent and mostly still for a moment-save his evasions-before he finally pushed out a sigh and shook his head, bringing the axe down hard into the creature’s throat.

The monster went limp immediately.

Cry slowly pulled back from the monster, straightening as he stared for several long moments before bringing in a somewhat shaky inhale and taking a few generous steps back. When he was finally assured the monster wasn’t about to get right back up, he turned and headed over to J-Fred, shoving the axe into Matthias’s hand along the way.

“We still gotta fight Ryuuzu,” J-Fred pointed out as Bryan and Matthias approached the fallen monster to retrieve the arrows with similar cringes. “We still gotta go help Ethan. It’s been _well over_ three minutes.”

Cry eyed the man for a few long moments, a heavy silence weighing down on them before he finally shook his head, deciding not to reply. Instead he ordered, “Here, let me see your leg.” He watched as the man shifted a bit to stick out his leg, reaching forward to settle the healing light over the injury. He could hear the others anxiously checking out the surrounding area, picking along the grove in an attempt to find more arrows.

But the silence didn’t go unnoticed by J-Fred and he frowned. “...You...do think he’s okay...right?” he asked hesitantly. “You don’t think he got himself…” His words fell into silence before picking back up again. “That really loud bang, I mean-he’s gotta be alright, right? That was just a really powerful spell and-”

“I don’t know what’s happened to Ethan,” Cry interrupted shortly. Memories taken from Jack weighed on his mind heavily, he couldn’t get the thought of that explosion out of his head. “We’ll just have to get back there and see what’s up.”

After a few long moments, he heard the others regroup behind him as the wound finally finished sealing up without a trace. He heavily pushed himself back up to his feet, looking back over at everyone. “Goddamn. Well.” He peered off between the two others, back in the direction they last saw Ethan and Ryuuzu. “Time for all of us to go, I guess. Yeah?”

Without any further word he moved from the group to head out of the grove and back into the area, turning the corner of the building as his pace got quicker and quicker. They’d been more so on the other side of the house from where the others had run off to-he could only hope that they were all alright as well.

The sight that met their eyes was nothing but pure obliteration.

There wasn’t a crater, but there was a burst pattern on the ground as if a freaking bomb just blew up; the heavy stone vases were knocked off their pillars, the grass was scorched, the few saplings were completely bowled over and trees were leaning and bare.

Ryuuzu wasn’t there.

Ryuuzu wasn’t there, thank god, but where the hell was Ethan?!

“ _Fuck-_ ” Cry whispered as he felt his feet stop moving, his legs briefly locked in place as his brain struggled to comprehend the damage and the gravity of the situation and his eyes swept the area. The others meanwhile raced past him, towards ground zero of the blast area.

“Ethan?” Matthias exclaimed, pulling forward.

“Ethan?”

_“Ethan?!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey, new chapter! And Anti being more of an asshole! We're rolling into the very final stages here, so everyone brace yourselves. In the meantime, thanks so much for all your support-the comments, kudos, even fan stuff-it really means so much to me, and I wouldn't get anywhere _close_ to this far without you. So if you liked it, drop a comment, drop a kudo, and I will see you all in the next chapter! Until then!


	54. Chapter 53

Matthias’s eyes widened upon seeing a figure on the ground. His pace immediately sped up. “Holy shit- _Ethan!_ ”

The brothers skid to a stop next to the blue-haired man’s limp, fallen figure, tugging him a bit from the hedge he’d flown back into and turning him over. Panic radiated from the group, Bryan stopping just a couple feet off and turning back towards Cry.

“Cry! Over here!” he called.

That was enough to snap the masked man back to reality, Cry hurrying to join them at the scene.

“He’s not injured-oh god, he’s not injured, what happened?” Matthias whispered as he checked Ethan over.

“This whole place looks like a bomb just went off. I don’t think Ryuuzu could’ve done this.” J-Fred made a slight face as he added, “Maybe he used that-there was a spell he wasn’t even supposed to use, wasn’t there? Jack told him not to-?”

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck _fuck-!_ ” Cry swore as he raced to Ethan’s side and crouched down, hovering the spell just over Ethan’s body as his eyes attempted to survey any damage. “I don’t even see where the problem is, man.” He moved to check the man’s pulse. “I don’t really know if he’s just unconscious or- _Oh god-_ ”

“Guys, hang on, let’s just-hold up, he’s breathing-” Bryan said, settling on Ethan’s other side.

“Maybe he is just unconscious.” Matthias exchanged looks with everyone else, an edge of hope clinging to his voice. “Right? He could’ve just been knocked out.”

“In the process of doing a spell to take down Ryuuzu,” J-Fred finished. He let out a sigh and shook his head. “Good god. What if we have to take him to a doctor? How are we even going to explain this?”

“We can’t,” Cry confessed, frowning. “Guys we-we’re just going to have to hope for the best here-” He paused, looking around. “I think we should find a safe place somewhere.”

“But the others-” Matthias began, looking over towards the house.

“There’s not much else we can do at this point,” Cry stated, although reluctance laced his tone. “We’re out of bullets. We’re practically out of arrows-” At that point, he watched as Bryan rose to his feet and moved to search the area in any small hope of finding any of his previously fired arrows. “And we have Ethan here, unconscious with only god knows what’s wrong with him. If any other monsters show up? We’re screwed.”

“So what do you recommend?” J-Fred asked, glancing over at him.

Cry was silent for a bit before as he mulled things over before finding stating, “I think we need to head towards the road.”

“I-” Matthias glanced back up at the house reluctantly.

Cry seemed to catch onto this line of thought, shaking his head determinedly. “It’s _not_ abandoning them.” Although his voice sounded far firmer than he actually felt. “But _someone_ needs to get help one way or another. We have no idea if Steph and Ken have actually made it or not, so…” His eyes flickered back down to Ethan. “Besides, the sooner we can get him to a doctor, the better.”

“And if we come up on Phillipe?” Matthias questioned.

“Then we’ll figure out a way to deal with it.” Cry winced slightly. “Look man, I’m gonna be completely honest here, I think at this point we’re just making things up as we go. I think that’s really about all we _can_ do here. Unless you’ve got any better ideas, but keep in mind, we _barely have any weapons in case more monsters show up._ ” He paused before adding, “Besides. This _is_ kind of helping out the others further. I’m sure they’d want us to get help as soon as we possibly could, not to mention seeing if Ken and Steph even made it. If Phillipe managed to catch up to them, they’re probably gonna need some sort of cavalry and healing-and as little as we’ve got now, it’s a lot more than what they’ve got.”

Everyone seemed hesitant, even if they were in agreement. But emotions and attachments aside, they had to do what was best and logical.

They had to do what would be best for everyone at the end of the day.

So after rearranging who was carrying what in the way of backpacks and whatnot, J-Fred lifted Ethan up onto his back and the group moved to head out the gates, following the long driveway covered in leaves and debris as the sun continued to rise.

The more distance they put between themselves and the house, the more the blanketing feeling of oppression lifted. Some of it still lingered, as if unable to rise from the tree cover above them. Their worry didn’t help at all, weighing it down and keeping the residual remains still clinging.

And the expected feeling of freedom never truly came. Not completely, anyway.

They suspected it would be a very long time before that feeling actually returned to them again.

* * *

 “I didn’t realize you’d discovered my pets’ little distraction-but no matter.” Anti shook his head. “It seems you’ve lost your mirror _._ ”

Mark glared, gripping the shard of glass, but now he held it behind his back, just out of view.

“ _Give us back Jack,_ ” he commanded, glaring at the entity.

“What the hell did you do to him anyway?!” Felix demanded.

“Hm?” Anti looked back over his shoulder at the pinned Irishman before looking back at the others. “Oh. Just a little spell to make him more compliant is all. And to prepare him for the final transfer-” Shaking his head dismissively, he then turned his attention over to Mark. “Why do you even want him back, anyway? He’s nothing more than an empty shell now; a body without an existence.”

“Not yet he’s not,” Mark snarled.

“You’re right.” Anti tilted his head with a grin, eyes trailing over each of them. “There’s one final step to the spell. I only need one more component.”

In suspicion, Tyler sidled in front of Mathew, katana ready. Mathew’s grip tightened slightly on the book.

“Besides, even if you get dear old Jack back-what then? How do you expect to get out of here? You barely managed to reach this place, didn’t you?” Anti’s grin grew a bit wider. “How do you plan to escape while hauling around a body that won’t wake up? One that’s on the doorstep of becoming more _monster_ than _human?_ What do you even think you’ll be _saving_ at this point? There’s hardly _anything_ left.”

“Hey, fuck you man,” Felix shot. “You can walk around with his face all you want. But you’ll _never_ be Jack, or anything even close to him. Even when he’s not all there.”

“Jack’s our friend,” Tyler added firmly. “We’ll figure out how to reverse what you’ve done once we’re out of here. But in the meantime, we’re all getting out.”

“Or at least everyone still alive once this is all over, hm? Who I suspect won’t be many.”

Felix glared, tightening his grip on the can of hairspray. Mark shook his head.

“Well. We tried asking nicely,” he muttered. Looking back at the others, he called over, “Guys!”

“Yeah!” Felix called back, flicking on the lighter.

Anti shook his head and let out a dismissive sigh, gesturing to the monster behind him with a wave of his hand.

Steve surged forward, racing towards the group.

It wasn’t certain who shouted it, but the words filled the room as chaos unleashed. “Gogogogogo!”

Everyone scattered, effectively avoiding Steve’s attack but now splitting them up in various corners of the room. Mark looked over at Jack with wide eyes before glancing over at Anti, then back at Jack again before making a run to the Irishman’s side.

“Jack-!”

“I don’t think so-!” Anti exclaimed, quickly making his way over to Mark to grab the back of his shirt and stab forward with his knife. Mark twisted around, dodging the first stab but getting hit in the back the second time.

“Okay-!” Mark grunted, moving to slash with the fragment of mirror. Edge dulled, it didn’t do too much in the way of causing any actual damage, but it did cause the entity to take a step back for a moment. Mark made a face, the fleeting concern of doing damage to Jack through his and Anti’s link causing him to hesitate with a counter, but a glance over at Mathew and his healing spell gave him a pang of reassurance. “Sorry, Jack-” he whispered as he swung with the bat, catching the entity in the ribs and forcing him to stagger. Adrenaline was surging through him at this point, he didn’t even acknowledge the stab wound in his back.

Not yet at least.

He took his chance to bolt the rest of the way to Jack, stopping in an instant by his side. “Jack! Jack!” He reached out to grab Jack’s shoulders in an attempt to pull him from the wall. Black eyes were opened wide but it looked like nobody was home; pale fingertips were starting to grey with dark spidering lines underneath that bordered on black and the occasional splintering, pulsing green. The sight sent a small spike of panic in the other. But he tried pushing it to the side, tightening his grip on Jack’s shoulders and pulling back to give a hard yank. “Nonononono- C’mon Jack-let’s get the hell out of here-”

It was at that point he was torn away and spun around. He felt something hit him, knocking the wind out of him, pinning him against the wall as something sharp went into his chest and Jack slipped from his grip. In front of him he could see Anti’s angry grin and triumphant green eyes staring at him, behind him he could see Felix between Mathew and Steve, trying to bathe the creature in flames. It was holding him off but not for long, Tyler was maneuvering to get around the monster to stab it in the back but stopped, catching sight of him and Jack and Anti.

“Mark!” he exclaimed, hesitating for a split second before looking back at the others reluctantly, then turning from him to stab the katana deep into Steve’s chest. The shriek that issued out was enough to make Anti glance over his shoulder and narrow his eyes.

“ _Stiana! Fuck-!_ ” he hissed before being sent toppling off-balance by Mark’s shove. Eyes narrowed as he watched Mathew bolt a wide berth around Steve and the commotion to rush towards them. A growl issued from his throat. “That’s. _It._ ”

His knife came down in yet another stab at Mark, this time the blade sinking into his stomach before he marched over to Mathew to meet him partway and leaving the other to slump to the ground. “This. _I need this._ ” He reached forward to land a stab on the Patrick, reaching for the book with his free hand. Mathew jumped back, scrambling back towards the others.

“Felix, Tyler-!”

“Yeah! Coming!” Tyler called back, finally pulling away from Steve as Felix kept his flamethrower pointed directly at the creature, paranoid of the thing rising back up for round two.

Mathew bolted around Anti, once again trying to keep a wide berth from trouble as Tyler quickly moved into a defensive position between the two. Mathew came to a stop at Mark’s side, practically skid as he dropped down to his knees. He could hear Mark’s breathing struggle, almost choking-yeah, no, _this_ was not going to happen. He reached down, putting a hand over the stab to Mark’s chest first, watching as the blood began to immediately draw back into the wound. He grimaced at the sensation of something in his mind sort of crumbling, being sucked away but tried to push it back, ignore it. It was a sensation that was already there, just-now it seemed sped up even more. If they could get all of this over and done quick, hopefully there wouldn’t be too much damage and _hopefully_ it wouldn’t last.

So instead he he just tried focusing on the healing process. No distractions, just focus, _focus_ and get all of this damage healed up as quickly as possible. Reverse it all and-

Realization hit him like a brick.

_Reverse._

The blood was going back into the wound. The wounds were sealing up _without even leaving scars_ , he wasn’t _healing_ anyone, he was-

“I’m _reversing_ damage-” he murmured in realization. His eyes widened as his mind went into overdrive, eyes drifting to the glowing clock between his hand and the injury. Now that he had the opportunity to see it up close and in action-now that he was actually _doing it himself_ -he was a _lot_ more aware now of the clock hands spinning backwards and the actual meaning of such. “The clock. It’s not just an aesthetic- This isn’t _healing_ , this is _small-scale time reversal_ , which _means-_ ”

“Huh-what-?” Mark mumbled as he clung to consciousness, looking up at Mathew. By this point the healing spell had been moved to his stomach, the chest now completely healed up. The Patrick could hear a commotion going on behind him, something with Felix yelling something at Anti, calling something over to Tyler. Mark shifted just a little bit with a grunt of pain, trying to get a view of whatever was going on behind Mathew. “Shit-Anti’s going to let in more monsters. If he does-”

“We need Anti over here,” Mathew stated. “I think we want to get him near Jack.”

Mark looked up at him in surprise. “What? No, Mat, that’s not what we want. That’s the exact _opposite_ of what we want. Why would you even say that?”

“Because I think I figured out how to stop him and save Jack,” Mathew replied.

Mark eyed him. “Are you _positive?_ ”

Mathew gave him a look, face scrunching into light uncertainty. But desperate times called for desperate measures. At this point, what did they really have to lose? “Well I mean-it _is_ just a theory.”

Mark rolled his eyes.

“Seriously though. Take a bit of your blood and get a spell started. Hide it behind your back and just trust me on this.” Mathew set the book down on the floor between them and flipped open to the clock needed for a healing spell. “I’ve got a plan.”

Mark eyed Mathew for a moment before finally nodding and working to get a healing spell going with some of the remains of blood that had dripped onto the floor, a red clock appearing at his fingertips to which he painfully shifted just slightly to hide it behind his back. It was no easy feat with the size of the spell, but it helped that he had very little skill at summoning such magic, or any for that matter-it scarcely bubbled out to begin with, and when Mathew gave him a small shake of his head, he stopped trying to get it to do so.

“Nothing too big. Not yet,” Mathew whispered as he finished up healing the stab in Mark’s back before jumping up and turning back to the scene. As he did, his free hand grazed the floor, grabbing up the mirror fragment before he turned and brought it up to Jack’s throat in one fluid motion. Behind them, Felix was on the floor, Anti was literally _right_ by the door- “ _Hey, Anti!_ ”

Anti stopped, hand hovering just by the knob before he paused, eyes narrowing at the Patrick.

“You wouldn’t _dare!”_ Anti countered.

“Mat, _what the hell are you doing?!”_ Felix demanded, eyes wide.

“You came all the way back up here to _rescue_ him!”

“‘Rescuing’ can come with a number of different interpretations, my friend,” Mathew countered without missing a beat. His eyes flickered back to Jack, doing his best to keep his expression unwavering. “You really think Jack would want this? To become a monster that helps kill all of us and others while another walks around with his face, fooling his loved ones?” He looked back at Anti, adding, “You can’t complete the transfer when he’s dead, can you? If we killed him now, I imagine the effect will be detrimental.” He shook his head. “Hell, considering your link is so close now that you can share injuries, this very well might kill _you._ ”

Anti snarled, glaring daggers at the man.

“Have you _lost your goddamn mind?!_ ” Felix exclaimed, but Tyler caught Mark’s look behind the Patrick, almost just out of view. Tyler hesitated, then went up behind Felix, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking his head almost imperceptibly before letting his hand slide away. He took a small, subtle step back and glanced over at Mathew with a concerned, somewhat uncertain look but-he did trust Mark, after all. And right now Mark was trusting Mathew so…

“Personally, I think if we can spare Jack from the hell you’ve got planned and get everyone else out of here alive, I’d call that a win. I think that’s really what Jack would’ve wanted.” Mathew swallowed and nodded in affirmation of this, continuing, “ _Unless_...unless you’d be willing to let him go. Let us take him and leave with him safely, unchanged into one of those monsters. And then we’ll be fine to leave you here, undamaged, so you can rot in this creepy old mansion.”

Anti’s face split into a wide grin, a pitched cackle ringing from his throat. Mathew struggled to keep from flinching, instead locking in on the green eyes and narrowing his own. He pressed down just a hair harder on the Irishman’s throat with the glass.

 _“Safe passage with Jack for your life, Anti! That’s what it’s gonna take!”_ Mathew leveled an unflinching look on him. “C’mon. You’re a selfish person. Do the smart thing and take the deal. It’ll be the best thing for everyone, and even then, you’ll be the one stuck with the least amount of damages.”

The entity took another step forward, tilting his head a bit.

_“No.”_

Mathew blinked, straightening a tiny bit. _“No?”_ he repeated.

 _“I said no,”_ Anti reaffirmed. He slowly paced the room to get in a bit closer as he continued, “I _know_ a bluff when I see one. You don’t know for sure if that’s how the connection between me and Jackaboy even _works_ . And really, after all this? After everything you’ve all been through, over and over, loop after loop, _desperately_ clinging to the hope of getting _everyone_ out alive _including_ Jack-”

“Except for the fact that, you know, you actually seem to be forgetting something,” Mathew interrupted.

_“What?”_

“ _I’ve_ only been through _one_ loop. _Sorry, Jack._ ” His face scrunched into a cringe as he bared down on the glass, dragging it across Jack’s throat.

Eyes bulged around him. Felix let loose a loud curse in Swedish as a shock of black shot from Jack’s throat and continued to do so. Jack’s own face, however, never changed; his eyes remained empty, his body still, almost seeming too far gone mentally to even notice.

“ _Holy-!_ ”

“ _Mat-!_ ”

But Mathew wasn’t focusing on anyone else in the room: eyes remained fixed on Anti, watching as the entity staggered a step forward, hand flying to his own throat before he scowled at the Patrick. Green eyes glared daggers at the theorist as his own appearance, his very own _existence_ seemed to blink and flicker sporadically. It was only a few times, but certainly noticeable. “ _You!_ ” he snarled, voice choppy and shrill.

“Mat, where the _hell_ are you going with this-?!” Mark hissed behind him as he shakily moved to his feet.

“ _Hurts_ , Anti?” Mathew asked, ignoring Mark as he glared at the entity. His eyes narrowed as he added lowly, _“I hope so.”_

 _“I’LL KILL YOU-!”_ Anti exclaimed, lunging at Mathew with a knife. It was at this point Tyler moved to quickly intersect, dropping the sword to free both hands and grab Anti by the shoulders. The entity quickly stumbled away at the pull, struggling to regain his balance; Mathew took advantage at the lack thereof. He quickly whirled around, slamming the hand with the healing spell into Anti’s chest and shoving him back into the wall next to Jack. His free hand meanwhile dropped the bloody shard and shot up to grab the wrist of Anti’s knife hand, pushing forward to pin it to the wall.

“MARK, NOW! START HEALING JACK _NOW_!”

“Just the throat? _”_ Mark demanded as he reached down to press the red magic to Jack’s spell, mimicking the positioning of Mathew’s hand on Anti.

“Of everything!”

Mathew didn’t know how better he could really elaborate on his answer, not in a moment like this anyway, not when he was struggling so hard against Anti. Tyler immediately picked up on this, quickly moving to help pin Anti to the wall as Felix meanwhile scrambled up and rushed over, yanking off his jacket to press to Jack’s throat.

 _“Oh god, oh god, oh god-”_ Felix chanted, watching the jacket soaking through with blood.

Mark looked back at the three. “Mat, it’s not working-!”

“ _Of course it’s not, you stupid-!”_ At this point Anti’s angry voice was becoming sharp and pitched, almost like nails on a chalkboard, as if hoping the pitch alone would be enough to pierce them all through.

Felix dared for just a moment to lift the jacket only slightly, eyes lighting up a little and relief crossing his features. “Throat’s almost patched up completely-” he began. A flickering light caught his eye, drawing his focus down below. “Ah! What-?!” He reached down with his free hand to check partway, to see if what he thought he just saw was confirmed. “Mark-!” He sharpened his voice just a little bit to cut through the angry shrieking as he yanked up Jack’s shirt even more so to show the clock carving on the Irishman’s stomach.

Mark blinked, then nodded and shifted his hand somewhat downward.

 _That_ got a reaction.

One by one, starting at twelve and going counter-clockwise, the numbers each began to glow. They blinked, flickering, pulsing as Jack drew in a sharp breath. Mathew quickly shifted his hand a bit downward as well, noticing a similar glow underneath the fabric of the entity’s shirt.

_“STOP THIS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! THAT’S ENOUGH, YOU’RE RUINING EVERYTHING-!”_

“Is it working now?!” Mathew shouted over all the howls and angry shrieks of the being before him.

“I don’t-I don’t _know!”_ Mark exclaimed. “I have no idea!”

Tyler’s eyes flickered over to Anti’s knife hand, still pinned by Matt’s free one. Despite not forming a spell with it, a light seemed to glow at one end of it, as if the magic was channeling. “Mat, your other hand-!” He looked down at Mark’s free hand, noticing like Mathew’s, whatever magic was in the spell was channeling along one arm and down into the next, almost like a shimmering veil wrapped around them. “Mark, yours too! Guys-!” He shifted a bit, moving to pin Anti’s hand other hand for Mathew.

Mathew took the cue and nodded, reaching for Mark’s hand. “Mark, your hand!”

Mark looked back over and nodded, reaching over and grasping Mathew’s hand. The magic connected, everything around them seemed to spin in a dizzying whirl of red, of gold, of blues and green. The floor lit up underneath them, each of the surrounding bloody numbers blazing bright as one by one they disappeared. Below them a bright, glowing clock spun rapidly in reverse.

**_“DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU’VE JUST DONE?!”_ **

Mathew could hear the screech, but everything in his vision was starting to tunnel. He heard Felix shout something, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. Tyler trying to keep everyone calm. Mark’s grip began to loosen, it felt like the spell was trying to rip them apart; he tightened his own grip in response and held on for dear life while also still trying to pin his other hand to Anti’s chest.

But the tunnel vision ever-narrowed, everything was starting to blur.

He felt himself suddenly fall forward, hand connecting with something hard (the wall?) but it barely registered before everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, so that happened! Hang in there guys, it's not over yet. We've got just a few more chapters to go! This chapter actually took a little bit of extra time because there were two ways I could get to more or less the same outcome, and I was agonizing over it for a while-but I think this works. I think I'm good with this. But thanks for your patience in the meantime! Thanks so much for everyone's support on this story so far, and check the comments in the last chapter for a link to some more wonderful fanart to it! Seriously, you guys are all super amazing and inspiring, and I wouldn't have gotten this far with the fic without you. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	55. Chapter 54

When Mark first woke, it was to Tyler leaning over him.

Worried eyes peered down at him, widening when the man on the ground stirred.

“Mark? Mark-c’mon-”

Without any beat of hesitation, the larger man reached down to help him sit up. With a murmured ‘thanks’, Mark took a moment attempting to get his bearings in the dizzying aftermath.

“Felix!” Tyler meanwhile called over, drawing the attention of the Swede.

Felix tore his eyes away from Jack and Mathew, letting out a sigh of relief and moving to his feet to hurry over. “Well that makes one out of three-”

“What happened?” Mark murmured. Daring headrush by lifting his eyes to look around the room again, he added, “Where’s Anti? How’s-” He attempted to twist around to get a look over at Jack, who now lay collapsed on the floor. “Where’s Jack? _How’s_ Jack?”

“Anti ain’t here no more,” Felix replied, watching Mark and ready to scold him if necessary if he pushed it too hard. “He disappeared when you and Mat did whatever the hell you did. Maybe you overloaded his system or-whatever the fucking-” He shook his head. “ _Why_ did you guys do that? What made you think that would work?”

Mark shook his head. “Ask Mat. He’d know more than I would; to be honest I was more so just following along.”

“Yeah, well, he ain’t up yet.” A look of worry flashed through Felix’s eyes. “Neither is Jack. I dunno if that helped him or…”

“Let’s just hope it helped him,” Mark muttered as he slowly moved to try getting to his feet. Tyler reached forward to stabilize and/or catch the other in case he fell over.

“Hey-hey-hey-hey now. Don’t push it,” Tyler warned.

“How long have I been out?” Mark questioned, stubbornly ignoring the warning as he wobbled and attempted to turn fully to the downed others, wanting to get a better look. Tyler rolled his eyes at this but lingered nearby.

“A while,” he replied.

“Maybe a bit over half an hour?” Felix shook his head. “You know time is kinda all over fucked in this place.”

Mark grimaced and moved to somewhat stagger over to Jack’s side, kneeling down to check the man’s fingers.

All was back to normal.

No grey.

No green.

Pale pink fingers and just-

Normal.

The man couldn’t help letting out a sigh of relief at this, looking back at the others. “So what’s the plan for getting out?” he asked. “We’ve still got that big dark room full of monsters between us and the rest of the house. And this time we don’t got a mirror.”

Felix flinched at this. “We’ve been debating on just waiting for help. To be honest, until you actually woke up, we weren’t even sure if it’d be safe to move you and Mat.”

“Yeah, no, I...I think I’m okay,” Mark replied.

Tyler eyed him firmly. “ _Are you?_ ” he asked, still wanting to be certain that it was even safe for his childhood friend to be up and about. “We don’t exactly know what the hell just happened-”

“Yeah, I mean, I think so.” Mark shrugged. “I feel normal enough. Nothing weird going on or…” He shook his head with a shrug. “And I can only assume that Mat’s gonna be the same once he wakes up. And...hopefully Jack?”

“Hopefully Jack’s got his memories back and everything,” Felix remarked. “Fuckin’ Anti.”

Mark nodded in agreement to this as his eyes surveyed the room for any dropped weapons or anything, or even to make doubley-sure that Steve was down and out for the count. The last thing they needed was to be attacked when two out of five of them were unconscious and he was still in the process of just getting back to normal.

His eyes settled on a limp figure on the floor, and for just a moment he froze. The figure was human, some tall pale man with fair hair and what maybe looked like a beard or something but it was hard to tell because the body was facedown-

He took a couple steps towards the body and blinked; when he looked again the body wasn’t that of a man at all, but a monster. Steve. A frown weighed on his features.

Why the hell did he actually see a person just now? _Yeah_ , it was mentioned when they headed here that the monsters might’ve been people originally but that’d never happened before. He’d never seen the monsters as people without a mirror before.

“Mark?” Tyler called over, still watching him like a mother hawk.

Mark rubbed his eyes and shook his head, puffing out a sigh as he made his way over to the monster. It looked burnt, stabbed-through the chest and also through the head. A pool of black liquid surrounded it and he looked back over at the others.

“I guess Steve isn’t going to be much of a problem anymore,” he mentioned before heading back.

“We sorta made sure he was extra-dead while you guys were out,” Felix confessed. “We didn’t need some monster getting back up and attacking us, so…”

“No, no, it’s fine. I get it,” Mark empathized, shaking his head and heading back over to the group. He let out a small sigh. “So yeah, I guess now we need to figure out a way out of here. I mean I guess there’s waiting for help but…”

A frown settled on his face as the silent agreement flew amongst everyone conscious in the group.

_They needed to get back to the others._

“Felix, still got the front door key?” Tyler asked, glancing over at the blond.

“Yeah,” Felix replied, reaching into his pocket to fish it out and hold it up for all to see. “Trust me, I wouldn’t lose something like that.”

“Good. I don’t think any of us are gonna wanna use the hose again. Especially if these two don’t wake up before we make it down.”

“Tell me about it,” Felix sighed, shaking his head and cringing at the memory of his slip. “Yeah, no-let’s never do the hose method again, you guys.”

“I can definitely get on board with that,” Mark muttered, looking back down at the fallen. “Okay, so I take it we’re carrying these guys. Who’s carrying whom?”

By the end of debate, it was more or less decided that Felix and Tyler would carry the others; although Mark attempted to offer, the others insisted they were still watching over him to make sure that _he_ didn’t collapse. They did however agree to let him take up arms and protect them if need be-but the plan was to go about all of this as quiet and stealthily and quickly as possible.

Maybe they would get lucky.

Maybe they could manage to get by without getting caught.

Or maybe this was all just stupid as hell; really they were about to find out how this all went.

Mark looked around as the others worked on picking up the unconscious two, eyes trailing around the floor in their general area before finally landing on their target: the book. He reached down, picking it up and straightening again to stare at it for several long moments until he finally lowered it and looked around at the others. “Everyone ready?” he asked.

“As ready as we’re ever gonna be,” Felix replied, shifting Jack just slightly on his back in an attempt to adjust to a more comfortable and reliable position.

“Good. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Mark glanced over at Tyler, getting a nod in response as the taller man made sure Mathew was secure on his back. Grasping his dented-up baseball bat tightly, Mark walked over to the door and opened it, cracking it open just slightly and peering into the darkness. He listened for movement but could barely hear it; it seemed the monsters were even more calm than normal.

He wasn’t sure whether or not to take it as a sign of good fortune or a trap.

Concluding that these were probably circumstances at their best, however, he made a wave to the others as he cautiously stepped out into the darkness.

A single mantra ran through his head over and over; he suspected similar was on the minds of his friends. He wasn't sure he'd ever thought anything so hard in his life.

_Don’t attack, don’t attack, don’t attack, please don’t attack, just leave us the fuck alone please..._

His movement was swift as they headed along the wall, leading the way to the other door. It helped a little bit as they left the door open, but the light only stretched so far in the long, wide hall. He had to stop for just a moment, and he held a hand out to the others just on the point of near-total darkness when he found a person curled up on the floor, knees drawn into their chest, head down. But the person suddenly lifted their head, jerked it upwards and suddenly it was a gray mass covered in eyes and a mouth-

Mark blinked hard for a moment, rubbing his eyes again before shaking his head, starting to lift his bat. But the creature didn’t move, staying still for a long while until Mark finally glanced back at the others, almost somewhat awkward.

“Uh…” he began under his breath before gesturing back to the others to try and move around the creature, uncertain how long they would be there if they attempted to wait it out.

The group tentatively made their way around the creature and headed back to the door that led out to the puzzle room, finally letting out a breath when his hand was securely on the knob. He gave it a quick twist and pulled the door open, not heading out until he was sure the others were through. Backing out as well, he softly shut the door and exchanged slightly confused looks with the others before finally giving a shrug.

It wasn’t until they were all heading down the stairs that they spoke.

“The monsters didn’t attack us this time. What the hell?” Felix questioned. “Did we _break_ them? Break the Anti, break the monsters? Not that I’m complaining, but…”

“Yeah, I definitely get that. Could be a trap, could be…” Tyler shrugged, glancing back at Mark. “Mark, you were in front of us the whole time. Did you notice anything particularly different?”

Mark almost missed the question; his mind was racing, lost in thought. How was he able to see monsters as people without a mirror? Why now? Was there a side-effect to the spell? Why didn’t the monsters attack them? Did Anti have to be around to command it?

What the hell even happened to Anti anyway?

“ _Mark._ ”

Tyler’s voice finally shook him from his fog, drawing brown eyes to the speaker. Tyler frowned, studying Mark.

“You sure you’re okay?” Tyler asked. “Mark, if that spell did anything to you…”

 _Should he actually_ **_tell_ ** _the others?_

Mark hesitated before finally sighing and shaking his head. “It’s been a long night,” he admitted. “And I think it was only made worse in using that spell. I might be starting to see things a little.”

This brought both pairs of eyes staring at him.

“Are you sure you don’t need to lie down?” Felix asked.

“No,” Mark replied. “But I’d rather not do it in here.”

Felix considered this for a moment before finally nodding. “Okay. Yeah, that’s fair,” he agreed. “Let’s get the hell out of here and then we’ll...I dunno. We’ll let you crash. Probably looked at by a doctor, too, for that matter.”

“Probably best everyone gets looked at by a doctor on some level or another at the end of all this,” Tyler pointed out. “All this stuff with magic and monsters-not to mention all the memory stuff. All the time loops? We don’t know what it’s done to all of us. We have no idea if there could be any side effects in the long run, so…”

“Yeah, probably a good idea,” Mark muttered as he nodded in agreement.

By this point they’d made it downstairs to the second floor, heading back down to the first. Everything was eerily silent, but at least now there was morning light peering in through the windows. It was a hopeful sight, one that made everyone quicken their tired feet just a little bit more than they were already.

When they reached the door it was visible that the door handle was busted, bent at an odd angle so it couldn’t be twisted. Felix let out a soft sigh, pulling his hand away and looking over at the others.

“Fuck,” he said. “Now what do we do?”

“Basement tunnel,” Tyler replied. “It’s probably our best chance.”

“I don’t wanna do the basement tunnel,” Felix whined.

“Would you rather stay in here with all the monsters?”

“I totally wanna do the basement tunnel, man. Let’s go.”

Felix moved to head out of the main hall and over to the basement, adding, “But we’re gonna have to figure out how the hell to get the others out if they’re still unconscious by the time we get there.”

“I’m sure we can figure something out. Worst comes to worst, we can try and make a go for some professional help. Hopefully,” Mark assured.

The group trekked through the basement, downstairs and through empty rooms, through corridors stained with their own blood. Like ghosts from an old dream, Mark couldn’t help but wonder how Jack saw this place. He knew if it were him, he’d never be able to see certain places the same way again, not without being haunted by the memories of bodies strewn across the floor and blood on the walls. Once again he asked himself how they went for so long without anyone actually noticing just how much it messed up the poor Irishman.

Once again he didn’t have an answer.

Finally they made it into the tunnel, over to the hose and the mud. Mark’s eyes glanced over the hose-it was a lot easier to see now that there was more light pouring into the tunnel and the sun was no doubt in a higher position in the sky.

“I could probably climb that,” he noted. “Probably.”

“You sure?” Felix asked, eyeing the slick, smooth wall that was almost his undoing only a short while back. “There ain’t exactly a whole lot of footholds, you know.”

Mark made a slight face at this; Felix did have a point. “I do kinda wish we had some actual, legit equipment. Rock-climbing gear or whatever. It’d definitely make all of this a whole lot easier,” he admitted. But finally he pushed a hand back through his hair and let out a sigh. “Honestly I think it’s gonna be our best shot though. When I get to the top, I think we should loop the hose under Jack and Mat’s arms and tie it there; I’ll pull up just a foot or two so we can be sure they’re secure.”

Tyler nodded in agreement, but then gave Mark some semblance of a smirk. “Care for a boost?” he asked.

“You always were the one to help me with getting things in high places,” Mark replied, looking up at the hose as he grabbed it and gave it a few quick pulls. Seemed to still be holding up-that was a plus, at least.

Tyler nodded, setting Mathew down against the wall and moving forward, getting into position. “Here,” he said, cupping his hands down below. Mark nodded and hurried forward, setting a foot down in Tyler’s hands to get lifted as high as the other could manage to get him-and the added height was overall not bad considering the circumstances.

Mark gripped the hose as tightly as he could, first trying to put his feet up against the wall but to no avail; he could gain no traction. So instead he wrapped his legs tightly around the hose. “Just gonna have to...shimmy…” he grunted, struggling to pull himself up the hose. It seemed to take forever before he reached the top but somehow he managed, struggling to get further traction even then and grabbing at the wet grass, slowly but surely dragging himself up into the mud. “God...dammit…”

He took a few moments to try and catch his breath as he sat up, finally turning to look around and survey the area. Once satisfied, he moved to the edge of the opening to look down at the others.

“Seems clear!” he called down.

“Alright, we’re sending Mat up,” Tyler called back up.

Mark nodded. “Alright. Do it.” He watched the others rope the hose around the unconscious man’s torso and snugly underneath his arms, attempting to secure it as best as possible before attempting to lift him.

“Okay I-think this is going to work,” Tyler called back up, although his voice sounded somewhat hesitant and uncertain.

“You sure you’re gonna be able to lift him on your own?” Felix called up.

“C’mon, Felix. Let’s not doubt me with my big swole arms here,” Mark called down lightly, attempting to be optimistic. They might actually have a point but dammit he was certainly gonna try.

“Try a couple feet. We’re holding him upright,” Tyler called up.

Mark nodded, grasping the hose as he moved to his feet and stepping backwards a few large but struggled steps. It was slow going and the slickness of the grass and mud were still giving him problems. Finally he let out a sigh and shook his head. “Take him again,” he called. “I don’t think one of me is gonna be enough in this case.”

He slowly lowered Mathew back down to the others and set down the hose, peering down into the hole again. “Maybe I should see if there’s anything you guys can stand on to add a little extra height; or there might be something to help with climbing in the shed?”

“We don’t know how safe it is for you to go venturing alone,” Tyler called up. “Just hold on a minute; I’m gonna send up Felix.”

“Wait, you are?” Felix asked as he helped remove the Patrick from the loop. Tyler looked back at him and shrugged.

Five minutes later and Felix was next to struggle his way up the hose. His climb was significantly longer than Mark’s but upon reaching the top, at least there was a hand waiting for him. He grasped the hand, gratefully accepting the help as he scrambled over the edge as well and paused for a moment to rest, sitting in the wet grass.

“Fuck, man. I am out of shape,” he panted.

Mark grinned slightly in spite of himself, shaking his head and making his way over to the edge to peer down. “Tyler!” he called.

Tyler glanced up at the opening. “Yeah?” he called up.

“You gonna be able to secure Mat and Jack well enough all on your own down there?”

There was a pause before Tyler called back up, “Well it’s a little bit late to be worrying about that now, isn’t it?”

“Okay, just checkin’.” Mark looked over at Felix as his companion squinted a bit in the early sunlight.

“Good to see the sun’s out,” Felix muttered. “That would’ve been even shittier to do while it was raining.”

Mark grinned at this softly, looking back down after a few minutes. “You ready down there?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Tyler called back up, moving to lift Mathew as high as he could with a grunt. “Hoping the two of you are.”

“Uh-” Mark looked over at Felix, who was finally getting back on his feet and letting out a small whine at the feeling of wet, muddy clothes clinging to him. “Yeah, just one more second.”

“Don’t take too long,” Tyler called back.

“Felix, you ready?” Mark asked.

“Ah-yeah,” Felix replied, moving to join him. “On three?”

“Sounds good to me,” Mark replied.

The two pulled hard, managing to haul Mathew up and finally over. Once the man was secure and safely on the ground, they moved on to Jack next, finding a bit more ease in getting the smaller man up and over.

“Tyler, you got this?” Mark called down to Tyler as they sent the hose back down.

Tyler nodded. “I hope so,” he called back up.

“Felix put a few knots in the hose; we’re hoping that’ll help a bit on the way up.”

“Thanks! Let’s hope so!”

The trip up for Tyler took a few tries-especially given that he lacked any sort of boost that the others got-but the knots were certainly helpful enough. At the point that he finally reached the surface, this time there were two pairs of hands to help him get up and out.

With everyone finally out of the house and alive, Mark sucked in a breath of the fresh morning air. For the first time in what felt like decades, he was actually able to enjoy it. And maybe it was just an illusion; maybe when they rounded the corner of the house and got back to the others, their joy and relief of being freed from the house would be shattered by a grave and gruesome scene of whatever happened to the others.

Regardless.

Whatever happened, this would be the final loop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So not a ton has happened in this chapter, but we are definitely getting into the wind-down. Time to leave this godforsaken mansion, time to regroup with the others. We shall see what their fates are soon enough~ In the meantime, there are some very awesome links to fanart by Zeeya and SketchySkittles in the comments to the last chapter-I highly suggest you guys check them out! And once again, thank you all so much for all the awesome fanart, the kudos and comments, the theories and support! This fic never would've gotten this far without you all! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	56. Chapter 55

Regrouping took far longer than anyone wanted it to.

Once the group who’d gone into the house saw the blast pattern out front, panic ensued. Everyone feared the worst. It wasn’t long after that, when Tyler stepped outside the gates to peer around the fence for any sign of _anyone_ that a text message dinged on his phone, drawing his attention down to it.

‘Head down the driveway. Everyone’s waiting.’

The message was sent from Mathias’s phone, giving a spark of hope to Tyler’s eyes as he turned to everyone in the group to report the good news.

A flood of text messages seemed to follow soon after from various people-namely those who didn’t have to share the nightmare of that night. Seeing the words and the names of those they all held most dear gave added motivation, an extra spark to fuel their drive that much further, pushing them through the gates and down the long driveway.

Before long the group could hear the sound of rushing water and saw the colors of flashing lights through the trees. It hurried their paces further-first a jog, then a full-on run-or at least as best as they could manage while carrying the unconscious.

Mark scarcely even realized he was in Amy’s arms until he felt them wrapping tightly around him, heard her voice, smelled her shampoo. The experience was so astonishingly surreal after the nightmare of that night, and the shock of the next several minutes felt so much like a dream that it bordered an out of body experience. All familiarities he wasn’t sure he’d ever get to experience again. Things he knew he would never take for granted in the future.

He almost broke down right there and then.

But then he heard shouts.

Saw people rushing about.

His head lifted from soft locks to look around him, to try and get some sort of a bearing on everything that was going on. There was a body on the ground not too far off from them-for just a flickering second he saw a young man with auburn hair and light curl lying face down in the mud-but in merely a blink the sight had gone back to normal, showing that it was Phillipe. He was completely blocked off, a couple unfamiliar people standing next to the scene. There was a makeshift bridge set up across the creek by paramedics that must’ve arrived on the scene at some point, the ambulance they arrived in just on the other side with the cars the others must’ve come in. The bridge was too tentative though, they weren’t letting any of them cross over to the side to get to the road while unsupervised-not yet, anyway. All around them were reunions, friends and loved ones back in each other’s arms and being checked over-

With a cold jolt he suddenly pulled away from Amy, looking over at Signe and Robin with wide eyes, watching as they rushed over to Jack and Felix and crowded around him with Marzia and PJ and Emma, as Felix spoke to them with a grim and weary look. Robin and PJ were wrapped in blankets, as if they didn’t get the luxury of a bridge to cross over. Signe’s hand flew to her mouth and she moved to start checking Jack over. She called his name in vain in some desperate search for responsiveness while Robin meanwhile hurried to grab a paramedic-or at least to tell one to come as soon as they were able. Felix glanced over at him; their eyes met-but then something was mentioned to the Swede and his eyes suddenly widened, color draining from his face. The man quickly passed Jack over to an offering Emma and pulled away from the group to rush over to a group of paramedics surrounding...something-

Or someone.

Mark’s eyes drifted from the scene as he saw Cry heading in Felix’s direction, mask pulled up to rest on top of his head-presumably to put authorities more at ease and to avoid any real questions pertaining to it. There was no spell around his hand anymore. Whether by choice or by accident or...or…

And then his eyes settled on Mathew and Tyler, the latter of which was speaking seriously with another one of the paramedics-the former of whom was lying on a tarp nearby but alone. Kathryn meanwhile stayed steadfast at his side, clutching his hand tightly with her face white as a sheet, refusing to let go of him for anything in the world.

Although J-Fred headed over to check on him while Mathias spoke to one of the paramedics and Bryan stuck close to a particular spot a few feet from the creek, Stephanie seemed absent.

And he didn’t see Ken.

Or Ethan.

Amy watched for just a moment, her eyes lingering on the scene as well before she took Mark’s face gently into her hands, guiding him to look at her. Her breathing was uneven as she leaned her head in and guided his down just enough so their foreheads touched. When she spoke, he could barely hear it, it was almost a tearful whisper.

_“Ken and Stephanie are in critical condition.”_

His breath caught.

_“And Cry and Team Edge brought Ethan back here with them but he’s been unconscious since-they said they don’t know what happened-”_

Mark stood frozen, rigid for just a moment before finally finding enough strength and willpower to pull himself only a small step back with hands still on her upper arms; it was at this point that he looked down at her-all of her-and got a good look at her state.

_“We did everything we could-”_

There were stains of blood on her hands and clothes.

Like with Robin, like with PJ.

It was at this point that she was able to get a good look at him too, the holes in his shirt that were circled with what blood had soaked into the fibers of his clothes-a hand went to her mouth and her face went white; she gestured for him to wait where he was before moving to go for one of the paramedics. Mark caught her wrist before she could go and shook his head slightly when she looked back at him.

He didn’t need the care.

Especially not when there were others who needed it even more.

Instead he pulled her close again and reached up to tuck a wisp of hair back behind her ear, uttering reassurances for a moment, anything to help calm that fear and worry in her eyes-even if it was only by a little bit.

_“I can’t really explain it, I know it’s gonna sound crazy, but I’m alright-I promise you, I’m alright-”_

It was a few moments more of this, of doing his best to reassure Amy-of his own wellbeing, if nothing else. Things were finally starting to settle around him, the shocked and blurred perception of time was beginning to slow. It was when he started feeling more grounded that he asked the question that was pressing on him.

_“Where is Ethan?”_

Amy looked off toward the grassy patch by the creek for a moment before taking his hand and tugging him towards Bryan. The pair reached the unconscious man, Mark kneeling down next to him to check him over, brown eyes somewhat frantic.

_This was on him._

_He invited Ethan. Invited Tyler._

_If it wasn’t for him…_

“The paramedics aren’t really sure what’s wrong with him,” Amy said worriedly. “They suggested maybe electric shock, but-but they don’t really have any idea-”

Mark took Ethan’s wrist, first checking his pulse before the sight of the man’s fingernails caught his eye-the ends were blackened and chipped, the skin underneath was a faint blue. Most else about him looked normal, _if looking like absolute hell was normal._ He looked paler than he’d ever seen him, almost frail-but at least his breathing was deep and even.

“Mark- _what happened back there?_ ”

Mark was silent for a long time, finally looking over at Bryan who met his gaze with a grim look. Bryan then glanced back at the others, a sign that they all really needed to discuss what the hell they would and could even actually say. The other frowned.

“Again, it’s-it’s gonna sound crazy,” Mark said softly. He hesitated before finally shaking his head. “There’s a lot to explain and to be honest I’m not even sure I understand it entirely myself. But I promise you that I’ll do the best I can as soon as I’m able.”

Hearing footsteps approaching them, he looked back at Felix as the other approached with Cry, looking significantly pale.

“We need to talk,” Felix said.

Mark nodded, glancing over at Amy with an apologetic look. “Sorry but-could you-” He glanced over at Bryan, who was getting up. “Would you mind watching over Ethan for a couple of minutes?” He shoved away the selfish part of him that regretted that request. For the time being, in the wake of everything, he didn’t want to be more than even a few feet from Amy-but he knew they needed to talk. And if she were there before he actually explained what went down…

But to his relief, he noticed Amy not putting up a fuss, moving to crouch down at Ethan’s side. Still he lingered for a few moments even then, watching the two before moving to join some of the others.

“Alright, so seriously-what the fuck happened to Ethan?” Mark demanded, speaking in hushed tones. His voice didn’t hold so much anger as it did panic, frantic to learn what the hell happened to everyone else and if there was any way they could still help them.

“Ryuuzu showed up not long after Abby and Phillipe. Go figure-he’s actually not an easy guy to kill,” Bryan explained. “We started running low on ammo and pretty much everything else, and we _still_ hadn’t fully taken down Abby yet, nevermind Ryuuzu-” He winced at the memory, hindsight indeed being 20/20. “Ethan managed to put up a barrier and told us fall back. He-he said he would join us-”

“But he didn’t. _He fucking didn’t, did he?_ ” Felix turned away for a moment before moving to face them again. This time his fingers were pinching the bridge of his nose. “Ah god-Cry, didn’t you mention him doing something like this before? Didn’t _Jack?_ He went using that one spell he _really shouldn’t have used?_ ”

Cry was silent for a long moment, and the bitterness of regret could be heard in his tone and emanated fully off his person when he finally spoke. “...Yeah. In a past loop. In one of Jack’s memories.” A beat of hesitation before added, “And we actually did hear a big bang from some ways off after we had to fall back.”

“Goddammit-” Felix hissed.

Mark stared in utter horror for a few long moments before glancing at Ethan, then turning back to the others. “But he’s not...he ain’t blown up or anything. Right? So...so maybe there’s still hope? Maybe it just knocked him unconscious? I mean-god-what does that even _mean?_ ”

Cry shook his head silently. “I’m sorry. I really wish we could say-I wish _I_ could say. But I’ve got no idea. We’re just gonna have to hope for the best, man.”

“And the healing spell you had?” Felix asked. “We’ve got Ken and Steph in critical condition-”

“Yeah, hey, I _know_. Honestly I think I might’ve fucked something up,” Cry confessed. “We were almost here when the spell suddenly freaking flickered out on me. And for a second I might’ve blacked out-”

“Wait, woah, hold on a second. You didn’t mention anything about that. What the fuck do you mean ‘you blacked out’? _That’s kinda something important to tell us, Cry-_ ” Felix scolded.

“Well I mean-! I got checked over by a paramedic not long after that, and I was really only out for a few minutes, supposedly-”

“Define a few-” Mark demanded.

“I dunno, like five maybe?”

“Closer to fifteen-twenty but…” Bryan muttered, shifting a bit.

“ _That’s kinda bad, Cry-_ ” Mark pointed out.

“I know, but-fuck it. Look, I’m pretty sure I’m fine. I _feel_ fine anyway, if not exhausted.” Cry paused for a moment and winced. “To be honest, I actually kinda think it was just from using that spell for so freaking long. Magic kinda takes a hell of a lot out of you-” He shook his head. “But if there’s any chance you brought the book back with you? Maybe we still can. We could use it to help the others.”

Mark nodded, pulling out the book and looking around. “Shit, I need blood…” He made a face at the statement but Cry hurried off for a moment, coming back a second later with a knife.

“Here,” Cry murmured, passing it over. Mark nodded, pricking his finger with the knife and moving to draw the clock hands back.

But the book remained the same as ever, just bloodied. Mark stared, then shook his head.

“Nonononono-” he murmured, attempting it again.

Again, nothing.

His eyes shot up to the others, confused and slightly panicked. Felix made a face but finally reached out to gently take the book from him, closing it with a soft ‘snap’.

“We’re just gonna have to let the doctors do their jobs,” the Swede relented tensely, although the reluctance in his voice was apparent. “And hope for the best.”

Cry frowned, feeling slight guilt and regret for asking anyone to try using that spell again. Although curious as to why it was no longer working, one look at Mark’s face made him decide to quickly shift focus in the conversation. “Although speaking of blackouts. What the hell happened on your end? You come back and you’re carrying an unconscious Jack... _and Mat?_ I mean I might’ve expected one, but…” Glancing back up towards the house, he pressed, “And what happened to Anti? What…”

Mark glanced over at Felix, opening his mouth when out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement. It was about that time that Tyler hurried over, looking around at everyone.

“Mat’s awake,” he reported.

Everyone exchanged looks before hurrying over to Mathew and Kathryn-the latter of whom was gently asking the former how he was feeling, hesitant on being the one to break the news to him about his wife. That could wait for at least a couple of minutes so he could regain some of his bearings before finding out, at least.

When the others arrived at their side, Kathryn glanced up, rising to her feet and giving each of the newcomers quick hugs. “Thank goodness you guys are okay,” she muttered. All the same, she couldn’t help but hesitate at the blood staining their clothes-

“Everyone’s fine, don’t worry about the blood. Nobody’s really all that injured in this portion of us, at least,” Mark mumbled. He shifted his focus back down to Mathew. “Mat?”

Mathew groaned as he sat up and looked around, a hand going to his head. “What happened?” he asked softly. “We’re back out?”

“Mostly thanks to you,” Mark replied, crouching by his side. “As for what happened, we were actually kinda hoping you could tell us. You were the one with the plan, after all.”

Mathew took a moment to remember what even happened before blinking in realization. “Oh. Oh yeah. Uh-” He looked around at everyone. “I noticed that the book wasn’t actually healing anyone-they were just creating small time pockets to make it so that the injuries never really happened. So then I wondered what would happen if we used it on Jack...and Anti...and if it would cause a reversal on whatever was going on there-” He suddenly fell short, frowning. “Where’s Steph?”

Noticing everyone else’s faces, he paled, wide-eyed and immediately moving to his feet, albeit with a wobble.

“Hey, hey-” Tyler said, reaching out to try and steady the Patrick. “She’s-Mat, she’s alive. She’s hurt pretty bad but alive. The paramedics are looking after her right now.”

“Show me,” Mathew whispered, to which Tyler nodded and moved to lead him off to the paramedics.

Mark watched them go before looking back at everyone worriedly.

“They’ll be alright. I hope,” Felix finally said, but then he let out a sigh and pushed his hands back through his hair, leaving the heels of his palms on forehead. “Goddammit.”

“So we reversed everything Anti did and took from Jack, I guess…” Mark murmured. “And in the process he...disappeared?”

“Maybe he couldn’t survive without being latched on to someone,” Bryan pointed out. “And by that point he was completely latched on to Jack?”

“Well-maybe this is a good thing. Right?” Cry suggested. “If things actually worked out like that, that would mean any and all of the crap that happened to Jack would be reversed. Maybe he’ll wake up soon and be back to normal.”

“Yeah, and maybe Anti is dead,” Tyler murmured, glancing back up towards the house.

“That would be ideal,” Felix remarked.

Everyone was silent as they mused over this for a few moments before Mark finally shook his head. “I’m gonna...I’m gonna head back over to Amy,” he said tiredly. “Go keep watch over Ethan and all… Lemme know if anything changes, alright?”

He didn’t wait too long for an answer, heading back over to the two and moving up beside the blond. Amy looked up at him worriedly.

“Any news?”

“About Ethan?” Mark let out a heavy sigh. “It’s complicated.”

“Could you uncomplicate it?”

Mark mulled it over for a long moment-how in the hell could he even begin to explain this without going all into magic and everything else?

“Ethan might’ve done something he shouldn’t have,” he finally said. “For good reasons. He might’ve saved a bunch of people doing it. But he still probably shouldn’t have done it.”

Amy continued to watch him with a frown before slipping her arm around his shoulders, leaning into him with a soft sigh. “At least everyone is alive,” she murmured to him. “For the moment we’ll just have to settle with that.” A pause, then a soft whisper, “I don’t know what happened in there. But I’m sure you did the best you could.”

It was a short while later when Ethan finally awoke, by about the point that they had a helicopter lower down to transport Ken and Stephanie to the nearest hospital. Felix, Marzia and Mathew managed across the makeshift bridge with PJ and got into the car to head up to the hospital; Felix meanwhile staying on the phone with Mary once they were securely in the car.

The first thing the blunette noticed was the sharp, aching pain in his head, the tingling sensation in his fingertips. Second was the cool feeling of plastic underneath him, although his clothes were wet and clinging from mud he must’ve been lying in earlier. A groan slipped from his lips as he winced and pushed himself up to look around. A glance down told him that the plastic feeling was a tarp that he’d been set onto, likely by the paramedics that were milling around-

His eyes widened as he looked around, seeing people rush around-strangers and those he knew. Police were on the scene, speaking with some of his friends-no doubt going over the events of the past night. The sun was shining above them, some of the fog had lifted. It was at that point Tyler looked over from the cop he was speaking to nearby, moving to excuse himself and head over.

The other crouched at Ethan’s side, opening his mouth-

Ethan blinked, watching his lips move.

But with a stark realization his eyes widened.

“Oh... _oh no,_ ” he muttered, a bit louder than he meant to with panic clinging to his voice.

Tyler’s eyes widened a bit, giving him a look of concern. He reached out to put a hand on Ethan’s shoulder-the younger man looked over at him with what little color returned to his cheeks drained back out all over again.

“What? What did you say?” Ethan asked, watching Tyler carefully.

Tyler frowned, repeating his words.

Ethan took a moment to process the movements before shaking his head, startled. “ _No!_ No I’m not okay, I-I can’t hear anything. Tyler, I can’t hear anything.”

Tyler’s expression went to shock in zero time, staying frozen for only about 2.9 seconds before he gestured for him to wait a moment and got up, rushing over to one of the paramedics. It was around this point that Kathryn came rushing over as well, moving along with Tyler for an update; Mark and Amy were back at Ethan’s side soon after.

“Ethan?” Mark asked.

The panicked younger man stared at Mark and Amy with wide eyes, watching the two of them talk but no sound meeting his ears. No, he couldn’t hear anything. Nothing but silence.

_Oh god oh god oh god…_

Mark reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder in whatever meager form of comfort he could provide, snapping Ethan from his silent mantra and drawing his attention to him. It was at this point the blunette realized he’d started to hyperventilate from the panic; he took a few deep breaths, looking back up at the two as he watched their lips move and did his best to follow as best he could.

“Guys, I can’t-I can’t hear you. I can’t hear anything. I…”

Amy and Mark exchanged worried glances that were mingled with horror. Mark looked at a loss, suddenly looking helpless. It was at this point that Amy took the initiative, leaning forward to give him a hug. Ethan suspected she was saying something to him regardless, even if he couldn’t hear it-and as frustrating as it was, he also took a small ounce of comfort from it, knowing they were doing whatever they could to try and help him keep calm even in such shit circumstances.

Tyler and Kathryn came to his side soon after, now with a paramedic who knelt down next to him, beginning to check him over. Ethan did his best to follow, letting Mark and the others answer some of the questions and watching as Tyler quickly headed off again. Questions spun in his head, not just on his current state but also the others. He opened his mouth, a worried frown on his face, closed it again. He was desperate for answers but wasn’t even sure he wanted to try asking for them; not when he couldn’t even hear them.

Well.

At least he was still pretty decent at reading lips.

“Where are the others?” he asked, drawing some of the attention directly back to him. “What happened to Jack? And…”

He leaned forward a little bit, then back, trying to angle himself well enough to try and get a look at the surrounding area. Maybe he could get some of the answers himself. Maybe he wouldn’t even have to try and wait for an answer.

Mark hesitated, but then seemed struck with the memory that Ethan could compensate at least somewhat decently with lip-reading. He’d seen it; Ethan showed it plenty in past challenges and whatnot so…

He reached out and lightly touched Ethan’s arm to get his attention back. He waited until the blue-haired man was looking straight at him before he began speaking slowly and carefully, making sure to keep each of his sentences short.

“Ken and Stephanie are in the hospital. Felix and Mat followed them with PJ and Marzia. Jack is unconscious. Anti is gone.”

Ethan studied him for a moment, brain working to translate for a moment. He was going to need that last part repeated but he was pretty sure-pretty sure he got the first couple sentences at least. His eyes widened. “Ken and Stephanie are in the hospital? Did I-is that right?”

He watched as Mark nodded, his hands going to his face. “Oh _no._ And what was that last part? Could you repeat that? I don’t think I quite got it.”

Mark nodded, repeating the last part somewhat slower this time. Ethan didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved at this point.

“Anti is gone and...Jack is unconscious. Right? Is that what you said?”

Again, Mark nodded.

“What the heck happened to Anti?”

Mark hesitated-not from reluctance to tell him, just more so trying to figure out _how._ To be completely honest, he himself didn’t actually know; at this point his tired and shellshocked mind was still struggling to fully comprehend how Mathew even knew to do what they did. Finally he concluded the truth was really the best he could give him-even if it wasn’t entirely comforting and likely not really the answer Ethan was hoping for.

“I don’t really know,” he replied, pausing for a moment as Ethan seemed to interpret and absorb this information. “We used the healing spell on Jack and Anti. The spell didn’t heal. It actually rewound small bits of time in pockets. We think anyway.” He paused again, giving Ethan a moment before continuing. “We think the spell rewound time for both of them and undid whatever was done to Jack. But we don’t know what happened to Anti after that. Tyler and Felix said he just disappeared.”

Ethan stared at him for a long moment, seeming to work everything out before wincing a bit. “Can you-okay. You guys used magic?” Mark nodded. “On Jack and Anti?” Again, a nod. “And it...hold on, what?”

It was about this point Tyler came hurrying over with a pad of paper and a pen, joined by Cry and Team Edge. Ethan gratefully took the paper and pen, eyeing for a moment before handing them over to Mark so he could just write the answer instead of go to the trouble of repeating it slowly.

Mark took the writing utensils and scrawled his message as quickly as he could before passing it back to Ethan. Ethan made a face slightly at the rushed handwriting but his eyes flicked over the message, his expression settling into something of a confused and worried look.

“That almost sounds too easy,” he noted, looking over at the paramedic as the paramedic requested the pen and paper, meanwhile speaking to Cry and Team Edge to ask questions again on what happened.

The group didn’t entirely know how to answer with anything that didn’t sound completely insane. Everyone was pretty sure it was a spell he never should’ve used, after all.

But who would ever believe that?

Awkwardly giving a sort of ‘we don’t exactly know, we didn’t really see it’ response, Cry quickly excused himself and headed over to Signe, Robin, Emma and Jack. The Irishman was now lying on a tarp, but didn’t look any closer to waking up than he did when he was first brought here. At least he was alive and breathing, there were no signs of actual damage on him. He supposed he could be thankful for small favors like that, but he wasn’t sure if that really did make things better or worse as the paramedics likely wouldn’t even know what to do or what to look for. And even so, it wasn’t entirely of much comfort to Signe, to Robin, to everyone.

Sidling up next to them, Cry watched as Robin and Emma did their best to comfort Signe, finally clearing his throat awkwardly.

“Um...for what little that it is actually worth,” he said quietly. “Jack saved all of us in what was pretty much a hellish situation last night. More than I think we even know, to be honest.” He frowned, remembering the man’s face just before he was dragged back into that mansion. “I just wish we could’ve done more… Jack would’ve been content with everyone leaving that place. But it would’ve been better if he was conscious enough to walk out of there himself.”

Ugh, that probably didn’t help too much. He cast a glance to Signe, adding, “I’m sure he’ll wake up soon. And believe me, once he does, he’ll be more than happy to see you.”

Or at least, he hoped that’s how things worked out. He hoped Jack would have his memories back after all was said and done, after Anti disappeared and they finally escaped this house.

He hoped that Jack even woke up at all.

Right now he didn’t even want to imagine the pain that would ensue if none of those things actually came to pass. For the moment, they...they were just done with with it. They’d dealt with all that pain in spades within that house, over and over again. And now that they were out of there…

Now that they were out of there, they just _needed a damn break._

In a moment exhaustion, Cry frowned, suddenly feeling the intense need to hear his mom’s voice again, to speak to his sister. He glanced down, shuffled, then turned to Emma.

“Hey, uh, Emma-would you mind if I borrowed your phone for just a moment?” Cry asked, somewhat hesitant. “I just-I really need to call my mom.”

Emma looked over at him with a small, concerned frown but nodded in understanding, passing it over to him and instructing him on how to make the call from out of the UK. Cry quietly thanked her and headed away from the group, making the call as his head spun in thinking what he was even going to say.

Whatever. That wasn’t important right now.

He just had to speak with his family and...and he’d work out the content later.

Mathias headed over to to Jack and the others as another helicopter approached, stopping by their side with a frown on his face. “Anything?” he asked.

Robin frowned and shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied grimly. “Mathias, you were there. We haven’t gotten a straight answer out of anyone yet. _What happened in there?_ ”

Mathias hesitated as his brain struggled to come up with an answer that didn’t sound _completely_ insane. In all honesty, at the moment they were still struggling what to even tell the police and paramedics-especially in any sort of way that wouldn’t have them carted off by anyone, be it a mental hospital or the secret service. He winced as he realized he probably couldn’t give them that much different of an answer than what they’d gotten already, explaining, “I...I wasn’t exactly there for when Jack fell unconscious,” he confessed honestly. “I’m not entirely sure of what caused that specifically.”

He hesitated for another moment, turning to glance back at the fallen monster-which had at this point was covered with a tarp.

“But you saw the monster? It’s related to that. It’s related to...something like that.” Mathias shook his head. “And how he saved all of us. Over and over. And I just really hope he wakes up soon to tell you guys about it...or not mention it at all.” His mind lingered on the second option, adding softly, “In all honesty though, if you guys could do all of us a favor and not push him on it once he wakes up? Just...let him tell you guys in his own time, at his own pace. If he doesn’t come out of this even a little messed up, I…” He let those words die on his lips, but he couldn’t deny the truth.

He was almost positive this was gonna mess all of them up for a very long time.

The less Jack was forced to remember, the better.

Which reminded him-

“Also, I’m not going to say anything for sure, but…” He swallowed, his words drowned out by the lowering helicopter. They watched as the paramedics got Jack ready for transport, Signe speaking with one of them as well as she could. She frowned when she was denied access to the helicopter, but looked back at them when offered a ride to the hospital as their next best option.

Robin nodded, making a gesture for ‘one moment’ and then another for her to go on ahead to the ambulance; he would catch up with her momentarily. He turned back to Mathias, expectant on an answer.

“You were saying?” he asked.

Mathias watched for a moment, then looked back at Robin, reluctant but feeling the need to be honest and give fair warning.

“Just don’t be surprised if he’s having any memory issues when he first wakes up,” he finally said. “In fact, I would almost expect them. I don’t know if they’re gonna clear up or…”

Robin’s eyes widened a bit at this, but then he gave Mathias a shrewd and worried look. “And by memory issues you mean…?”

Mathias opened his mouth. Shut it again. He didn’t completely have the heart to say such issues likely concerned memories of them and anything before the past night-especially when they didn’t know if it was even an issue or not anymore. So instead he helplessly shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m not really all that sure. Not anymore.”

But the other seemed to catch on, eyes widening slightly before growing grim.

“We’ll keep him under watch and hope for the best,” he replied. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“Hey,” Bryan said, grabbing both the men’s attention in his approach. “The paramedics and police are loading everyone up to go to the hospital now that Jack’s being transported and everyone else is awake. They said they were gonna finish up whatever questioning they had left over there.”

Mathias nodded. “Alright. Thanks. We’ll be right there,” he assured.

Bryan nodded, moving to head back over to Emma, J-Fred and Mark’s crew, speaking to one of the paramedics as Ethan was slowly helped to his feet and guided to the makeshift bridge. Any final glance down the long driveway towards the mansion revealed nothing, not a single answer to any of their questions. Although the mist had mostly lifted, the fog of nightmares still remained. One they hoped they could eventually escape with distance and time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's a fun little aspect of trivia: even though I had Ethan's condition planned out far earlier than when I was actually writing it, the day when I _did_ finally get to that part in my writing was when the Truth or Die challenge video was posted up on Mark's channel. Needless to say, the timing of that challenge was actually a tiny bit disconcerting. If you haven't seen it, go check it out; Ethan's lip-reading skills are pretty much completely on-point! All that said, anyway, I decided to get this chapter up a day early since I'm off to Momocon in a few hours, but expect the next chapter to be out probably next Friday! We've got just a handful of chapters left, so hang in there. In the meantime, thanks so much for all your support; there's no way I could've gotten this far without all of you. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	57. Chapter 56

Things seemed to move much faster after that-the next several hours at least were practically a blur. It was tricky communicating with the various communities, but as Tyler gently pressed, it was something that needed to be done. Most of it was over Twitter and they had to be careful of what they said in what was now an ongoing investigation. Besides, who would believe them if they confessed what really happened?

Even after just barely surviving it all, they scarcely believed it themselves.

Needless to say, the Spoopoween Charity Livestream was cancelled indefinitely. Mark made the necessary calls to the donors who planned to match them, to give them the news and apologize for their inability to do it as scheduled-all the while remaining at the hospital. He promised they would perhaps look into scheduling something a bit smaller scale in November, maybe December.

Although his voice weighed heavy with sincere regret, there was a foreign and noticeable absence of resolve.

It was over the course of that time that they got the news of just how serious the conditions were of those hospitalized.

Ethan was deaf.  _ Completely deaf _ , and doctors had no real explanation as to how or why or if he was ever going to get better.

Stephanie had lost a dangerous amount of blood by the time they got her to the hospital; there had been some damage to not just the soft tissue but also the organs around her stomach-but the gashes across her ribs showed that it could’ve been so much worse. Regardless, she was in the ICU for at least the first several hours. And to top all of that off…

“The doctors are saying she’s gonna pull through, at least,” Matthias offered, offering Mathew a diet coke and a sandwich from the cafeteria downstairs. People’s appetites seemed to range a bit at this point, depending on the person. Some were outright picking at their food and where it stood, it looked like Mathew was gonna be one of those people. “C’mon, you gotta keep your strength up.”

Mathew held the diet coke but didn’t actually drink it. Not yet. Matthias certainly felt for the man: he looked like hell. But it was in a sort of special way that didn’t quite reach the rest of them-and Matthias got it. He honestly didn’t know  _ what _ he’d do if Amanda were in Stephanie’s position.

“She’s pregnant,” Mathew suddenly said somewhat brokenly, causing the other man’s eyes to widen. “The doctors think that Stephanie might be pregnant.”

“Well-uh-congratulations?” It was all Matthias could think appropriate to answer with. He reached over to pat Mathew on the back as the other was mostly slumped over. “I’m hoping?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’d be great news any other day, and I don’t think Steph even knew yet since it’s so early, it’s just-” Mathew drew in a shaky breath. “Oh my god. I almost lost her. If help hadn’t come when it did-  _ I almost lost them both.” _

Matthias gave him a sympathetic look. “And what are doctors saying about it? They think both are gonna pull through?”

Mathew nodded and swallowed before he said anything, finally looking over at Matthias. “Yeah,” he replied. “They’re hopeful. If she were further along when it happened-” He shook his head, letting it drop again. “But they think both are gonna be okay. Amazingly. Thank god.”

Matthias nodded, thankful and relieved. He then gave Mathew a sideways look as he reached over to give him a pat on the back. “You’re gonna be a great dad,” he assured.

Ken was in the ICU for even longer. Although the gashes in the back were easily stitched up, the doctor explained that those claws had caused damage to the subclavian artery, not to mention did some severe nerve damage. With the amount of time it took for help to arrive, he was lucky to even still be alive.

_ “But it’s possible he may never be able to use his right arm again.” _

Throughout it all, Jack continued to sleep.

_ ‘Got into an accident. I’m alright. Steph is in hospital. Doctors say she’ll be alright with R&R.’ _

_ ‘Ken is in the hospital. Doctors say he’s going to pull through but will need time to recover. Please keep us in thoughts and prayers.’ _

_ ‘Jack is in the hospital and has not yet woken up. Hoping that will change soon.’ _

Their stories were all flimsy, of course, and they all knew it. They knew everyone would wonder why the livestream was suddenly canceled, and why certain people of the group and beyond were suddenly very unresponsive. And it was far too coincidental as the tweets were sent out too close together-it didn’t take long for most followers to form and share their own suspicions. But they couldn’t just claim monsters and magic, after all.

In spite of their worries and guesses, they would just have to settle for flimsy lies.

It was really all they could work up the energy to manage as an exhaustion settled over everyone and seemed to seep into every pore straight down to the bone.

Of course Stephanie and Ken were the easiest stories for most people to accept-these supposed ‘accidents’ did take place in the UK during one of the worst storms in the area of that year, after all. Meteorologists suggested it was a storm that had trailed along in the wake of Hurricane Ophelia and lingered for several days before finally moving aground further south and causing plenty of accidents amongst the local populace already. It was Jack’s hospitalization that drew the most speculation-there was no reason given for why he was at the hospital, no news released on what was actually wrong.

After some discussion with the others, Mark was finally the one to put out a brief and vague post with a bit more explanation, first on tumblr and then copying the message to throw onto other social media outlets. Again, it was all full of lies, but when they discovered the livestream location was somehow figured out and/or leaked and people were making plans to investigate the house to see if anything weird had gone on-taped off by the police or not, they didn’t feel assured enough that everyone attempting to poke around would be caught, at least in time.

The last thing that accursed place needed was  _ more _ recognition and fame.

_ ‘We cannot stress enough, for those who have figured out where we might’ve been setting up at, PLEASE DO NOT TRY GOING IN OR AROUND THE PROPERTY. We found out the hard way that there are some highly dangerous chemicals located there and some of us are still suffering from the severe after-effects of it. The police also have the place roped off currently and  _ **_will_ ** _ arrest trespassers on site. Please do not take this risk and stay safe.’ _

Nobody really left the hospital or slept for the first three hours or so after arrival. In spite of the exhaustion that had reached everyone’s core, it was needless to say that the police had more than just a few questions. And besides, everyone was still too alert, too restless, too worried and on edge. The surreal feeling was mutual amongst just about everyone: none of this seemed real and all were anxious and paranoid of this somehow being a cruel illusion cast by Anti.

But as far as they knew, it wasn’t.

Four hours in was the point where people slowly, gradually began trickling out. By now a majority of the various check-ups and minor medical care that needed to be handed out was over, and the police had wrapped most of their preliminary inquiries with everyone.

After a bit of a wait to be seen and then several tests and examinations run on him, doctors were still mystified as to what was wrong with Ethan and how to help him.

Everyone knew the answer to the first part, at least in its most basic explanation: magic.

Nobody really suggested it.

They finally released him but with insistence that he go home, get some rest, and then return the next day for another checkup. After some discussion, Kathryn was the one to finally take him back to the hotel. Tyler promised to follow soon after, and to call one of them if there was any sign of change or improvement with the others.

Team Edge were among some of the second to leave, having spoken with wives and daughters and overall families. Said families insisted they head back as soon as they could possibly manage.

They didn’t argue.

After speaking with Team Edge on their way out, apologizing for everything that happened and offering any sort of assistance for later or even just someone to talk to, Tyler strode back up to the waiting room, taking a seat next to Mark. They sat in silence for awhile; Amy softly excused herself to get them all some coffee downstairs. The taller man took in the sight of his childhood friend: even after leaving the mansion and cleaning up somewhat, he looked absolutely like hell.

_ “It’s not your fault.” _

Puffy brown eyes looked over at him, swirling with guilt and remorse and anger and confusion and weariness.

_ “None of this is your fault.” _

There was a long silence before Mark spoke.

“Felix and Jack found the house. But I was the one who came up with the idea. I  _ pushed _ for this. I organized most of this-”

“No.  _ I _ organized most of this. You’ve got me to do that, remember? We  _ all _ took part in some way or another.”

Mark stared at him silently for a while, seeming to be at a loss of words before he finally looked back down at the floor. Tyler moved a hand to rest lightly on his back and shoulder.

“Hey. You couldn’t have known anything like this was going to happen. None of us could’ve ever even  _ imagined _ anything like this  _ could _ ever even happen.”

Mark swallowed the forming lump in his throat and looked away, blinking furiously.

“Anti wasn’t going to just give up Jack after all that trouble. And he sure as hell wouldn’t have let us leave alive; if even one of us escaped, that would’ve put his whole operation in jeopardy. But everyone’s alive. Everyone’s out. We didn’t leave a single person behind-and as an added bonus, Anti is gone, probably for good-and that’s thanks to you and Mathew. You guys were the ones who  _ stopped _ Anti. And even if he’s not completely gone, authorities will make sure nobody’s going into that house anytime soon. Either way, he won’t be hurting anyone ever again. Really this is probably the best outcome any of us could’ve hoped for considering the circumstances.”

“Is it?” Mark shook his head bitterly. “Ethan is  _ deaf _ , Tyler. Stephanie and Ken are in critical condition, at least one of them likely with permanent damage. Jack is...we don’t even know  _ if _ he’s going to wake up...or when…”

“Jack  _ will _ wake up. Eventually. I’m sure after all was said and done, it’s just taking a while for his head to get on straight again. And that’s probably all it is. Stephanie’s going to recover, Ken...I feel like we can’t even really call anything beyond his survival until doctors are done working with him. And Ethan…” Tyler’s brows furrowed into a frown before he added. “We don’t really know for sure. It’s magic, so...as far as we know, his hearing could come back. Maybe even sooner than we think. And if it doesn’t, we’ll figure out how to help him out in whatever way we can.” After a beat, he added, “We’ll figure out how to provide help to anyone that needs it.

It was at this point Mark finally looked over at him.

“But in the meantime, I think we just need to cherish what we still have and make the best of whatever we’re left with. After all, there’s no going back.” Tyler gave him a look of shared understanding, but it was firm. “Not anymore.”

Seeing Amy head back over, he tiredly rose to his feet and gave Mark’s back a small pat before heading over to the woman. A few hushed words with her, a few glances back at Mark. Amy nodded, and although she was unable to keep the worry out of her eyes, a resolute watchfulness remained. Once Tyler accepted one of the cups of coffee she’d brought up for the three of them and excused himself to speak to Felix and Marzia, she moved back to her previous seat, passing one of the remaining two cups over to Mark and leaning until her head was resting against him. Tyler exchanged a few quick words with the couple and Marzia nodded, moving to call up Emma or PJ so he could get a ride to the hotel to join Kathryn and Ethan.

Cry continued to linger around for about six hours or so, even though there wasn’t much wrong with him medically; it was around that point Felix and Marzia remembered his current accommodations were a single-person hotel room and offered him a place to stay in their own home. After everything that happened, there seemed to be an understandable sentiment amongst everyone of not wanting to be alone. Reality had yet to settle, after all, and even though everything that happened had truly only transpired in a single night, nobody actually felt that the danger had passed. Not yet.

The American couldn’t have been more relieved and thanked them for their generous offer when he accepted.

He and Marzia headed out soon after that, making plans to swing by the hotel so he could pick up his things and cancel his reservation.

Felix stayed behind.

Ultimately it finally came down to the few remaining stragglers at the hospital. Mathew continued to linger, having no real intention on leaving the hospital without his wife, or at least not until she was awake and available for visiting. Just as well-he had plenty of calls to make once given access to a phone. Cancelling the hotel, contacting the conference they were planning to attend and letting them know that there was an accident and that they couldn’t make it, calling up the rental agency, calling their families back home, Jason and everybody else on their team-

By the eight hour mark, PJ arrived at Amy’s insistence to find Mathew passed out on a sofa in the waiting room. He reached down and gave the man a light shake to rouse him-it took a bit of soft convincing, but finally the Englishman managed to coax him into leaving just long enough to get cleaned up with a bit of rest and a meal at his place. Even still, Mathew wasn’t fully sold until they had a few words with one of the nurses and got an update on Stephanie’s condition-they didn’t intend to allow any visitors for another few hours, at least.

And then, after a while, it was just Signe, Robin, Mark, Amy and Felix.

It wasn’t too long after Mathew and PJ left that Amy finally decided to put her foot down, giving Mark a soft nudge as she sat up and straightened out, stretching out her muscles and joints. “Time to go,” she whispered. She settled a hand on his arm as she rose to her feet, tugging just a little bit to get him to rise as well.

Mark frowned slightly. “Amy-” he began softly, but the blond shook her head firmly.

“No. No, you need to get some actual rest. And for the moment, as it stands, there’s really nothing that can be done here. So c’mon, let’s go.”

Mark opened his mouth as if to argue, but he knew that look: he really would get nowhere fast if he tried. So finally he sighed and moved to his feet, Amy slipping an arm around him both for closeness but also support as she guided him to the door. On their way out they stopped by Felix and Robin who were carrying on a conversation in Swedish. Amy patiently waited for them to take notice and pause their conversation before speaking.

“Mark and I are gonna head back to the hotel. If you guys could give us a heads up if there’s any sort of change?”

Felix nodded. “Yeah...yeah, of course,” he replied. “Uh-” He looked over to see nobody else was really available to drive at this point except Signe-and he sure as hell wasn’t about to ask her to leave Jack’s side. “Marzia’s back at the house with Cry but I can get you guys an Über-or would you rather do the bus?”

Amy glanced over at Mark before looking back at him. “I think Über would be for the best-or a taxi maybe. Whichever gets us quickest back to the hotel.”

Felix nodded, Robin already checking his phone to get them a lift. It wasn’t long before Mark and Amy were gone too. Most of the ride to the hotel was uneventful; Mark had been given a new shirt sometime during their stay at the hospital, so no real attention was drawn to his clothes anymore. When they arrived, Ethan and Tyler were snoozing-Kathryn sitting on the bed where Tyler was and working on her computer. Amy shooed Mark on to their room next door as she went to check in with Kathryn, getting an update on everyone’s state so far. There had been no change with Ethan, and both of them took a while to actually get to sleep in spite of their exhaustion-but once they did, it was mostly without stirring.

Amy returned to the next room to find Mark already lying on the bed, completely passed out.

To Mark’s relief, for just one night at least, the nightmares seemed to be kept at bay. Rather, all he was met with in his sleep was an all-encompassing darkness.

Darkness, accompanied by a faint, high-pitched noise that sounded all around him.

By that point at the hospital, it was only Felix, Robin and Signe who remained. Signe hadn’t been seen much since they arrived, staying in Jack’s room and curled up on the sofa nearby when she wasn’t sitting next to his bed. Robin knew she wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon-but Felix he worked to encourage to head home, to get some rest.

“There’s nothing you can do at this point. You’re just going to have to trust the doctors and let them take it from here, yeah?” he said. “But Marzia needs you at home right now-and I’m sure Cry would appreciate having someone who was there last night in case he needed somebody to talk to.” The man frowned-based on Felix’s look, he wasn’t truly sure how much headway he was actually making. “Trust me, we will call you if anything changes with any of the people here. You will be one of the first to know.”

And soon it was only Robin and Signe remaining.

The hiatuses came not long after that-one by one each of the channels of those who’d suffered from that night went stagnant and quiet. Their communities buzzed, suspicious but even more so worried about what happened and what was going on. Some thought maybe it was culminating into something more but those who saw the messages from the morning that followed the hell night knew better.

Something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.

And Jack…

Jack never woke up over the course of the next 48 hours.

Or the next 72 hours.

Or the next week.

Doctors reported finding brain activity, at least, and as such they hooked him up to life support.

But they had no idea when he was going to wake up. Couldn’t even give a ballpark estimate, just…

They all had to wait and see.

Stephanie made it out of surgery, woke up, was well on her way to recovery. The second she was awake Mathew was at her side, holding her hand.

_ “Everybody made it out. Everyone’s alive. And we all got help-thanks to you and Ken.” _

Stephanie gave a smile of relief, her fingers curling around his.

_ “I’m sure you had a lot to do with it. Getting Jack out...stopping Anti.” _

_ “How about you being a badass and making sure we were rescued while also stopping a monster?” _

**_“I am so proud of you.”_ **

Ken was finally out of surgery and making a recovery as well-although the aftermath was more dire in his case.

Although the artery that’d been hit had been repaired, the nerve damage to his arm and shoulder had been substantial. It was going to take a good number of surgeries to even begin repairing it, as well as physical therapy. Odds were that even after all that, even with everything at its most optimal, it would never truly be the same.

Still, the man couldn’t have been happier to wake up and find Mary and Laylah at his side.

_ “Hey, Laylah. Hey. Daddy missed you and mommy so much.” _

And Jack still hadn’t woken up.

It was going into the second week that someone went in to check on Ethan and found him and his carry-on missing with a note left on the bed.

‘ _ Gonna be gone for two or three days. Will message you guys once I get to where I’m going. Don’t worry.’ _

Green-blue eyes stared up at the dilapidated Cardiff manor as the cab pulled up, blinking a few times with surprise. Of course he’d looked the place up online before going, but he’d contacted the current owner of the address and they replied. They said they were game for meeting him-

Reflexively his mind was already saying no, didn’t even want to give this place a try at  _ all _ . This was a bad idea. This was  _ probably _ a bad idea. If nothing else, he probably should’ve gone with someone or...or told everyone where he was going.

But he had the feeling nobody would actually agree with it.

And he definitely felt that people would be upset if they knew Cry had returned his magic book to him.

Well at least this place wasn’t all the way out in the woods, and had a much clearer view of the street. He was thankful enough for that much.

He felt a tap on his arm and twisted back around to look at the driver-the man was talking to him, seemed to forget that he mentioned he had some hearing issues back when he was picked up at the train station. He watched the driver for a long moment, working out in his brain what was most likely said, but then nodded.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think this is fine,” he replied, knowing he was probably a bit louder than he meant to be-but to his defense, he couldn’t even hear his own voice. “I’m supposed to be meeting someone here, anyway.”

He paid the driver and stepped out of the cab with his carry-on, then watched as it pulled away.

Now he was alone.

He wasn’t quite so sure how long he lingered in that spot, hesitant to go in but unsure what to do at this point if he didn’t. He wasn’t exactly a walk’s distance back to the hotel, after all, or even the train station. His dismissal of the cab had been his resolve, an assurance that he wasn’t going to leave until he’d done what he came here to do.

He turned back to the house.

Tried the gate.

The gate was unlocked and opened easily-he pushed it open and stepped through the threshold-

_ And everything changed. _

The yard was neat and tidy, a once-dingy and mossy tea table and chairs were now a clean and pristine white, located around some trimmed rose bushes that-from the gate-looked wild. The grass was green and cut even, and the house itself seemed old but well-tended to.

It was far different from how it was when he first saw it.

And even though the Harry Potter fan within him as well as the alarmed side of him left over from that one night was calling magic almost immediately, he could see that this place was different from the mansion of monsters back towards Brighton.

There was just…

There was more light in this place.

That was about the only way he could describe it.

He walked up the gravel walkway, making his way up the red brick steps and knocking on the door.

He wasn’t sure quite what he was expecting, but it wasn’t the short blond woman with long hair, thick eyebrows and blue-green eyes that shooed a pair of corgis away from the door before turning to him with a small smile. She began speaking but he made a slight, apologetic face when he couldn’t hear her.

“Sorry, I uh-I kinda lost my hearing just recently? Um-”

He handed her a pad of paper and a pen before setting his backpack down and pulling out the book to hold out to her. Instantly familiarity crept into the woman’s eyes, a grim, heavy look weighing a bit now on her smile. She moved to take the book, offering her hand to shake his. Perhaps a bit odd of a thing to do now but-maybe that’s what he should’ve led with-

He moved to shake her hand as she spoke some words to him-she did remember why he’d given her the notepad, right?-but as she did, something welled up in his ears.

_ Sound. _

He could feel an odd tingling in his hand, some sort of warmth, and then he noticed faint crimson lines pulsing just underneath the skin of the woman’s hand. When he looked at his own, he noticed the familiar blue.

_ “...-igured. You must’ve used quite the spell to throw off your own natural magical-biological equilibrium so badly.” _

He looked back up at the blond woman with wide eyes. He could now hear the birds, hear the dogs barking-and perhaps what sounded like a Scotsman calling at them from towards the back of the house. And this woman’s heavily-accented Welsh voice speaking to him-

The woman took notice of his shock, of course, giving him a smile.

“Perhaps I should introduce myself: you may call me Guin. I’m the sister of the owner of this book.” Her voice took on a note of sadness and borderline odd disappointment-a voice that sounded almost tired. “And...considering that you’re the one bringing it back to us, I can only assume for certain that he is no longer with us.”

Ethan frowned. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he replied, sincere but at the same time relishing the sounds around him. Sound was something he would never take for granted again. His eyes trailed down to their hands, finally moving to release her’s-he’d been too distracted by his recently-returned sense to let go. “Um-” Awkwardness crept into his tone from the realization. “I’m Ethan, by the way. Ethan Nestor.”

“I figured as much,” Guin replied, a soft smile crossing her lips. Her eyes gazed down at the book. “You could’ve kept this for yourself. Even if you did come here to bring us news of our brother’s passing, or to see if we could’ve fixed your deafness-you could’ve claimed you no longer had the book.”

“Yeah, well I mean, it’s just the right thing to do,” Ethan pointed out without missing much of a beat. “I mean-like you said, it kinda helps confirm what happened to your brother and maybe give you guys some closure-” He shook his head. “And besides, it had a return address. If I kept it, it’d be stealing. I don’t wanna take something you have to remember your brother with-”

“You’re a good man,” Guin remarked. Her eyes drifted down to his hand as she added softly, “And you clearly bear the ability to use magic.  _ Our _ kind of magic. Your contact with our brother’s magical residue ensured that doorway was opened for you. You still have the ability. Now you’re just untrained.”

She was quiet for a moment, staring down at the book she was handed before speaking again. “The absence of our brother and friends from this world creates a void that will be noticed, both in the magical community and…” Her voice trailed for just a moment before she held the book back out to the man. “How would you like to learn some magic?”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, got the next chapter out and about! It's a little bit late but at least it got a little bit more TLC on it. I do have to say though, yeah, I'm actually a little floored that Jack's going with his whole coma thing in the Egopocalypse when I had at least a week-long coma already written into this fic. But yeah! We've got some updated character statuses, we've got some people stabilized, we've got a whole bunch of trauma and overall fallout going on. This chapter was a little bit slow-it's gonna pick up a lot more in the next couple as everything settles down. In the meantime, all the theories circulating have me very intrigued and very amused. I may not confirm or deny them persay, but I certainly do enjoy reading them! But yeah, thank you guys so much for all your support. This story never would've gotten this far without it! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	58. Chapter 57

It was almost a month before the first sign of life returned to youtube from those who went missing that night. It almost didn’t happen, but after the trauma of Hurricane Irma striking Florida, Cry felt the need to wind down a little bit, to try and get back at least a little bit of normalcy in his life.

On a mid-November night, Cry and the Late Night Crew did a Twitch stream. Nobody watching knew he’d actually been at the mansion that night, but by association through Youtube, there were still questions. And suspicions. He wouldn’t answer any questions regarding to what happened or on the current status of the other youtubers except perhaps drop a brief, passing reassurance that those who were injured were recovering decently. He refused to answer any real questions about Jack.

Jack was still asleep.

But he was thankful the rest of the crew respected his request before the stream to keep acknowledgement about that night at a level of barest minimum all the same. The people who joined in and followed were...generally pretty respectful too. Quite honestly, it was more than he could’ve hoped for. He was thankful for that too.

He was also thankful he could actually remember everyone’s names on the Late Night Crew after the disappearance of Anti.

Half a week or so after that, he started doing an ongoing Lets Play-some sort of JRPG or indie game or another. He felt he should probably put out some content for the community more so on the youtube end as well-it was really the least he could do.

Even in spite of the recently-appearing glitches on his computer, he pushed on through it, juggling both Twitch and youtube as best as he could manage.

Team Edge was next to put out videos a week or so later, first on their own singular channels, then together on their shared ones again. The output rate for videos started out slow, then picked up to as busy as ever-sometimes even more. To those who knew what went down at the house, they could tell that the group was trying to stay busy-really anything to help forget about what happened that night. It was obvious they were doing their best to keep spirits high, keep people entertained, and much like Cry, help to fill the void that’d been made in the silence and absence of everybody else.

Even with them and Cry, it was a big void to try and fill.

And still, Jack slept.

November passed into December, and it was about at that point that a Game Theory and Film Theory video respectively trickled onto youtube. It was followed about a week later by a livestream on the GTLive channel-although the subtle changes in their states did not go unnoticed. Mathew clearly hadn’t been sleeping much, both he and Stephanie looked a bit paler and thinner than normal. The pair decided to play something a little bit more lighthearted, a game by the name of _Flight_. Stephanie sat through most of it curled up on the sofa, and though acting normal enough, her arms remained curled around her stomach, chest and torso as if cold.

She was not.

They watched as the little paper airplane landed somewhere in the Middle East, giggled in amusement at the animations and the fact that the plane had traveled so far.

“Oh no, his ride just ran away from him!” Stephanie remarked as the camel took off. Mathew meanwhile gave the man a look of sympathy as Stephanie continued. “He’s stranded out there in the middle of the desert!”

“Who would’ve-” Mathew took a minute to readjust his posture as he continued. “Who would’ve guessed that our paper airplane shenanigans back in _London_ would’ve caused this poor man to get stranded?”

“Wow, yeah, I’m pretty sure this guy never saw it coming-although strangely he seems pretty used to this kind of thing happening.”

Mathew pointed to the screen with a grin. “Oh look, he’s reading it.”

“I wonder how well he can read French-?” They watched as the man more so seemed to observe the picture of two people standing side by side next to a campfire-or a bonfire. A bonfire that they were suddenly thrown into.

They watched as the man’s expression turned into one of horror and his thoughts turn to a darker guess than some innocent romantic picnic.

“Oh god, what? The end of the world?!” Stephanie exclaimed as her jaw dropped in an incredulous grin as Mathew cracked up laughing.

“ _Wow_ , that is a heck of a jump to go from ‘romantic picnic’ to ‘the world is on _fire_ ’,” Mathew snickered.

“This actually does remind me of this one time back in school when we were playing telephone...” Stephanie began as they watched the man bite his finger to make it bleed, then write ‘THE END IS NEAR’ on the unfolded paper airplane before folding it back up and launching it into the air again.

Although her story continued, Mathew froze for a moment with a slight frown, staring at the screen. He could feel something warm on his hands and his eyes flickered downward, noticing a bit of blood on his index finger.

Then his other fingers.

Then his hands.

His breath caught in his throat, any mirth in his eyes was completely gone.

_‘You did this.’_

He could feel ice down his spine and the hairs prickle on his arms as he could hear the voice coming from just behind him but right in his ear. It wasn’t the voice of anyone else in the room. It wasn’t even Anti’s voice. He wanted to turn around but he knew this couldn’t even be possible. He wanted to turn around but he found himself frozen, unable to move.

He didn’t want to turn around and see-

 _‘_ **_You_ ** _did this!’_

He knew whose voice it was.

But how...how could his own voice be coming from right behind him-?

His eyes drifted upward to Stephanie, to see if she could even see what he did. His heart was pounding, his hands shaking as they clenched into the fabric of his jeans. She didn’t seem to notice, she was looking towards the camera as she continued on with the story that he wasn’t even hearing anymore. He paled immediately as he saw blood beginning to stream down her neck, blossom from her stomach and through her shirt.

_‘Did you ever stop to think? That maybe...just maybe...the reason Jack isn’t waking up is because of you?’_

It did occur to him, actually. It did occur but it was something he tried not to dwell on.

What if they didn’t manage to heal Jack in time?

What if he died from a slashed throat while they were baiting Anti?

But he was alive by the end of it all, they detected brain activity-

Unless it was Anti.

They didn’t even know for sure what had happened to him at the very end, did they?

_‘Isn’t it such a pity that you’ve broken everything?’_

“I haven’t…” Mathew began to mumble, his voice just barely audible.

Stephanie stopped for a moment in her story, blinking and staring at Mathew with alarm. “Mat?”

_‘You’ll break them too.’_

Stephanie quickly twisted around and made a quick gesture to Jason and Chris, who hurried to cut off the livestream.

Mathew began to lift one of his blood-soaked hands, his eyes drawn to the computer for a brief moment, which flickered with a nonsensical sequence of letters and numbers on the screen before crashing the game entirely.

_‘KVTUM9L5ZPVW52SPL5ON5’_

“Mathew!”

He didn’t realize Chris and Jason had shut down the stream until he felt Stephanie’s hands on both shoulders as she gave him a light shake, snapping him back to reality. His eyes were wide, all the color had drained from his face-but his hands were clean. She was clean. She was fine-or at least as close to the point she had gotten to fine over the course of a little over a month or so. Stephanie cupped his face in her hands, getting him to look at her, helping him to calm down-it took longer than he would’ve cared to admit for him to do so.

_“I-I don’t know what’s wrong. I don’t know what happened-”_

It was the first in a number of sporadic hallucinations that followed, often when he least expected it, gruesome sights and occasionally even strange impulses that came out of nowhere. He did his best to keep self-aware, to make sure to rationalize if whatever he was seeing was real or not. After a night in that house, sometimes it was difficult, but…

He was just happy he had Stephanie to help him through it.

All the same though, these fits would come without warning: Stephanie said he would sometimes space out and/or start having a panic attack. She suggested therapy. For the most part, he didn’t argue. The livestreams were reduced to twice a week if even that until further notice, and they made sure to keep the games fairly lighthearted until they could get things sorted out to at least some sort of degree-they were leery about Mathew having another attack in the middle of one of them. The plan was to claim connection problems if it ever happened again and add to the tweet #blamejason-and in the meantime, they would just put out more theory videos in an attempt to supplement for their lack of anything else.

Still, people had noticed, especially that first attack. Suspicions reignited, theories flew about-and not the kind they really wanted to. Most suspected it was some sort of PTSD from whatever accident the two of them were involved in but others remained unconvinced, believing that it could be something far more. Most people’s questions on the matter were ignored at that point, except for the occasional reassurance that yeah, it was just issues leftover from the ‘accident’ and it was mostly just recent connection problems that were messing with the livestreams. Really, it wasn’t anywhere near as severe as people were making it out to be.

In actuality, it was worse.

And still, Jack slept.

Christmas edged upon them faster than anyone suspected. It was only a few days before the holidays that Mark posted up a video, just a simple, emotional video to his community about how he and the team had recently been going through some stuff and thanking everyone for showing their love and support through it all, even throughout their absence.

 _“And I really want to return the favor to all you guys, I_ **_do_ ** _...which is why I promise we’ll have a video out for you on Christmas. I think you all are really going to like it. I hope you do, anyway. And after that, I think I’d really like to start getting back to posting up videos regularly again, at least a few every week- Oh, c’mere Chica. C’mere, say hello to everyone. That’s a good girl. That’s a good bub.”_

The video that came out on Christmas was titled ‘Markiplier Makes Christmas Cookies’ with a focus on who could make Christmas cookies from scratch with no cookbook and in only a span of five minutes, then only three minutes to decorate them. Ethan was suspiciously absent, but they were joined by Team Edge, who seemed determined to defeat Mark and Tyler with their own respective cookies. By the end, Matthias’s turned out a bit goopy, J-Fred’s like a brick, Bryan’s fairly on-point, Mark’s very dry, and Tyler’s almost undercooked. Mark’s cookie ended up looking like ‘a Christmas tree dick’, because of course it did. It was one of the first times Tyler heard Mark actually genuinely laugh in a while, and he was thankful for that.

“It’s good to see he’s going back to making videos again,” Bryan remarked as they worked on cleaning up; Mark and Matthias were meanwhile peering at some of the footage with the intent on heading right back over shortly to help clean up. “Everyone was starting to get pretty worried.”

“Yeah, well, I scheduled him for the hiatus after what happened,” Tyler explained. “But then it went on a lot longer than planned…”

“How has he been doing, anyway?” J-Fred asked.

“Um-” Tyler let out a tired sigh that was bigger than he really intended. “He’s been having a lot of issues with nightmares, he said. And just sleeping overall, I guess? It’s actually kinda starting to show: poor guy looks tired all the time. Chica and Amy help, but…”

“Has he, um, told Amy yet?” Bryan asked. “For that matter, have you talked to Kathryn about it?” He paused before adding, “Sarah’s been asking every now and then and I just...a lot of the time I feel like I really can’t.”

“Yeah, Matthias mentioned similar problems with Amanda. Like, how does anyone even talk about what happened that night without sounding completely crazy?” J-Fred murmured.

Tyler frowned lightly. “I know the feeling,” he admitted. “Um, to be honest, I kinda just told Kathryn that it was a little hard to talk about but promised that I would in time… She’s been good enough to me that she hasn’t really pushed it. I’ve told her about a few small things of the place, but-” He shook his head. “But then, Kathryn saw one of those monsters for herself. So did Amy, for that matter. So it’s a little easier to talk about it and have her believe? We have that much of an advantage, at least.”

“Yeeeah,” Bryan sighed, shaking his head. “So then with you-have _you_ been alright?”

Tyler’s frown deepened a little, turning his attention to the countertop he was wiping down-it was a bit more intense than he would’ve liked it to be. “When we were in the house,” he finally began after a silence, voice hesitant and reluctant to speak. “To save Jack, I mean, to get him back? We used some trick with a mirror to help keep most of the monsters from attacking us. And it worked: every time they were faced with a reflective surface, it seemed they would kinda go into some sort of trance. But the things _we_ saw in the mirror…”

His voice trailed off for a long moment, this one even longer than before. “They were people, you guys. All of those monsters used to be people, and I seriously don’t think Anti even changed their names after monsterfying them. I started looking into the reports of people who’d disappeared after going into that area, from recent to way, way back-” He pursed his lips. “I do think I found Abby. O’Brien, apparently? It was some woman from the 1920s. And then I saw the photographs of some of those that’d disappeared and recognized them from the reflections. Emily. Edmund. I think it’s safe to say that’s what would’ve happened to Jack if we didn’t get to him in time.” He swallowed, his grip curling just a little bit tighter on the sponge in his hand. “And I killed some of them. _I killed people._ ”

The other two for silent for a long moment before J-Fred finally frowned and nodded slightly. “Matthias mentioned something about that, actually,” he noted. “Speaking of Abby, in fact. She bled the same black blood Jack did. He was able to put two and two together pretty quick.” He bit his lip, frown deepening for a moment before he shook his head and looked back up at Tyler. “They would’ve thanked you for it if they could. I mean, c’mon, think about it- _especially_ if it was like Jack. Think of the things that they were forced to _do._ Nobody would’ve wanted to become a monster. And they definitely wouldn’t have wanted to keep _living_ as one. What you did-what _we_ did-would’ve been more so an act of mercy to them than anything else.”

“Yeah, and who knows what the government might be doing with some of those monsters after locking the place down,” Bryan pointed out. He shook his head. “Anyway. You did what needed to be done, right? Otherwise you guys wouldn’t have even made it to Jack alive.”

“I…” Tyler’s voice trailed for a moment, but then he nodded. “That’s true, I guess. Yeah. Thanks.” His grip relaxed a little again on the sponge as he looked up at the two. “And you guys? I take it you three have been alright?”

“A little time with our families, a short break...we’re doing better,” Bryan assured. “We’re still not back up to 100%, but we’re not really on the worst end of everything.”

“November was a lot worse than December. Trust me,” J-Fred added. He didn’t mention the calls he’d get in the middle of the night from a panicked Matthias, half-asleep and wanting to make sure he was alive and okay. Bryan had gotten similar calls. Such a thing was something they’d come to expect, and they were always easy on him whenever they got them. But much to everyone’s relief, those calls were becoming less and less frequent-either Amanda was doing something to help reassure him or the night terrors that came with the fallout were finally starting to phase out. Instead, he merely added, “I think Matthias was hit the worst of us, to be honest, but even he’s starting to get better. Gradually, anyway.”

“And Ethan? What’s the story there?” Bryan asked, switching tracks.

Tyler let out another sigh. “Um-well the good news is, he got his hearing back. You guys knew about that much already though, right-?” He waited until they both nodded before continuing. “Yeah, so that was fixed by the sister of the person who owned the book he was using. But according to him, then she offered to help him refine his magic and-I dunno. It’s been a big point of tension between him and Mark lately, to be honest. Mark doesn’t trust her-to be honest, I don’t think any of us really do-but Ethan said they were treating him right. Felix and Marzia went up to Cardiff on a weekend trip to check up on him and they said he seemed to be doing fine. They met with the woman teaching him-said she seemed to be nice enough too, so.”

“Well like-he is coming back, right?” J-Fred asked with a slight frown.

“Yeah, he said he was probably gonna be back next month,” Tyler replied. “For a while, at least. He mentioned he was probably gonna start making videos again a bit before that.”

“That’s a relief,” J-Fred sighed. “I mean, at least it’s something. Maybe.”

He glanced over at Mark, watching as he and Matthias spoke with Kathryn and Amy before they headed off. Their attention turned to each other, conversing amongst themselves. “It’ll be good when things finally start getting back to normal.”

Tyler frowned, following his gaze. “To be honest, I don’t think ‘normal’ is a thing we’re going to be able to manage again for a _long_ time. If ever.”

Mark meanwhile glanced over at the others to notice they were looking at them, giving them a signal that he’d be there in a moment as Matthias turned his attention fully to him.

“So how have _you_ been doing?” Matthias asked.

“Hm?” Mark raised his eyebrows.

“Well I mean-have you talked to Mathew and Steph lately? I heard Mathew hasn’t been doing too well after what happened. He’s kind of...shook up after everything, I guess.”

Mark frowned slightly, but then shook his head. “I guess it’s been rough, but I’m managing,” he assured. “I think I’m about at a point where I can get back to making videos again. Consistently, I’m hoping. But otherwise, I haven’t exactly been having any freakouts or panic attacks-” He paused before adding, “I haven’t exactly been sleeping well lately, granted, but other than that…”

“Well that’s understandable. I think a lot of us have been getting nightmares from that place.” Matthias’s voice was soft as he said this, frowning.

Mark frowned a bit. “I take it you’ve been having some too?” he asked. “You wanna talk about it?”

Matthias scoffed but smiled slightly at this. “And here I was asking about you.”

“Well the tables have turned. But seriously. How have you been managing lately?”

Matthias winced a bit. “It’s...it’s been rough. After some of the stuff that happened back there, after some of the things that I saw...I mean...I just can’t get it out of my head. I keep seeing my family getting killed by those monsters in my dreams. I keep seeing _you guys_ getting killed by the monsters sometimes. And I mean, it was one thing just waking up and writing them off as dreams-until my mind remembered that there are a bunch of memories from other loops, and we don’t know what’s happened to them since then. We’d get our memories back whenever we’d break clocks-we don’t know what’s happened to everything in the house since the cops came. And realizing that what I was seeing in my dreams might not just be dreams but _memories_ -”

“But those memories don’t really matter anymore,” Mark assured softly. “This is our reality now.”

“I know,” Matthias replied. “But just knowing that those deaths were also a reality we experienced once...knowing just _how close_ we came to all that…” He shook his head. “I guess...it’s just been really messing with me lately. And I thank god that everyone’s been patient enough with me whenever I freak out. Even if it is at three in the morning or whatever.”

“I’m really glad you have that kind of support,” Mark agreed, smiling softly. “I guess sometimes it just...it doesn’t really seem real, does it? That we got out? That everyone survived?”

“Well, we’re not entirely out of the woods yet. After all, Jack is still in a coma, right?”

Mark’s smile faded into a frown as he nodded. “Right.”

Christmas came and went, followed by New Year’s soon after. January was generally uneventful, aside from the nightmares and states of those badly affected only getting worse-even in spite of whatever help and therapy they received. Matthias, Bryan, J-Fred, Stephanie, Ken, Tyler-they all seemed fine. Felix had become withdrawn, his channel laid silent. But whatever after effects everyone else from the group suffered only seemed to intensify and become more frequent-to what end, they were uncertain. Ethan’s channel had picked back up and he did return-for a little bit, at least. Although he and Mark managed to get along decently and although they didn’t really talk about it, his magical lessons continued to pose as a sort of elephant in the room.

Cry’s posting and streaming faltered here and there as his computer issues picked up-but this much was already seen as normal.

_“Just my dumb luck, freaking computer.”_

And still Jack slept.

The days crept on gradually towards the middle of January.

_“Hey everyone, CinnamonToastKen here, finally back from my long hiatus! I just wanted to go on ahead and post a video clearing up a few things about what’s been going on recently and how things are gonna be looking for at least the next few months-”_

Ken’s first video in a long time was just a simple vlog. He looked a little worse for wear, his arm was in a sling, and although he didn’t divulge into many details as to _why_ , he did give a small status update on his arm.

_“As you can see, I’m probably not gonna have any Lets Plays up for a long time, but in the meantime I’m gonna be putting out the occasional vlog.”_

His arm was pretty much shot, making actual gaming so difficult that it bordered on impossibility-there were some major limitations to gaming one-handed, after all. He assured everyone that the severed nerves had been reattached as best they could. Doctors were being cautiously optimistic that he might somewhat recover the use and mobility of his arm and hand over time, if he remained consistent enough with his physical therapy. As such, a lot of his videos were focused around his therapy and recovery as well as his family life and Laylah’s growth. There were those in his community that wished him well, but also those who encouraged his therapy, some who related their own struggles and challenges and deemed his recovery videos as inspirational. There was that much, at least.

Even so, he did manage to get a few gaming videos up even then. Like a saving grace, a couple of visual novels surged into popularity-games that was easy enough for him to play one-handed. There were more videos posted of Insult Simulator, as well as others. Small, silly, simple games and visual novels, for the most part-but it was still something, at least.

He kept up contact with Felix as much as he could-he wasn’t the only one who noticed how quiet the Swede had become, after all. It took a long time of convincing, of wearing the other man down, but finally a stir. Without warning, one day in late January, Felix’s channel sparked back to life, although tentative at first-and oddly nostalgic.

_“Alright bros! Alright! I have heard the call- Or maybe not.” Sigh. “‘Thank christ that loser has finally left youtube. No more shitty videos.’” Comment liked. “...Quality comment, quality-definite thumbs up on that one, thank you- Well, good news everyone! Starting today I’ll be bringing back the stuff that everyone’s been missing for so long: ...more shitty videos. Alright.” Scoff. “But not just any videos! Bros. Bros. I’ve noticed there’s been a little bit of a vacuum from certain parts of youtube as far as gaming videos go, so...for just a little bit, at least, for as long as that vacuum needs to be filled, I...guess I’ll be going back to doing some more gaming videos once or twice a week.” Sigh. “For fuck’s sake.”_

“So uh-yeah. There you have it,” Felix told Jack without expecting any reply, sitting next to his bedside. “I hope you’re happy, you freaking potato. I’m back to doing gaming videos because you’re not...there...to…”

His voice trailed off at the Irishman’s uncharacteristic silence, a state that stretched on so long that it’d become anticipated. Instead he let out a frustrated sigh, running his hair back through blond hair. “Fuck man, what am I even doing? What are _you_ doing? You sure are taking your time at waking up, you know. With as loud and energetic as you are, you’re the last person I would’ve expected to become an freaking actual potato.” Pause. “Yeah, you heard me. Potatoes don’t move, you know, they don’t talk or do anything. And considering how you’ve been lately-”

He shook his head, silent for a long time.

“I really wish things had gone different, you know. It shouldn’t be you in that bed. After everything you went through for all of us, you…”

He swallowed and looked away before looking back at him. “And Signe’s really worried about you, you know? She comes in here to visit every day, from what I’ve heard. And I try, man. I try, but…” He shook his head. “Robin’s also freaking worried and...and everyone else. You’re a real asshole like that, man. Making everyone worry. Making me…”

Felix stared at the unconscious man before shaking his head. “Fuck. For fuck’s sake, goddammit, Jack. _What’s it gonna take to help you wake up?_ ”

There was a long silence before Felix finally voiced the question that’d been nagging at him, worrying him for the longest time.

 _“Did we do this? Were_ **_we_ ** _the ones who fucked up?”_ He stared intently at Jack as if expecting the man to just pop awake and give him an answer. “When Mark and MatPat did their thing, I mean-was that _wrong?_ Did that make everything _worse_ or did that...or just…”

He swallowed again.

“Were _we_ the ones that did this to you?”

Or even worse, a reality he scarcely dared to entertain but just couldn’t keep out of his brain.

“Are you even _able_ to wake up? Or did all the shit that went down in that house ensure that you’d be like this...permanently?”

The silence stretched on for only a few minutes but it felt like hours as Felix sank into his own thoughts. Most of them were dark and threatened to drown him-and as if sinking in water, he suddenly felt his anxiety spike, his frustration and patience snap as he jumped up out of the chair.

“Goddammit!”

He couldn’t be here. He couldn’t-not anymore. That was enough for today.

That was enough.

The few following days after were awful all around. They got word on a small change from Jack-that he’d had a _seizure_ -but still hadn’t woken up yet. It was with a pounding head that Mark spoke to Signe about it over the phone-who still sounded a bit frantic-and tried his best to keep her calm. His thankfulness was without limits when Amy took the rest of the call the moment she saw his pain.

It was only a day or two later when he got a call from Brighton authorities: the house had been destroyed. A victim of arson, they suspected. Did he know anything about it? Did he have any idea _who_ might’ve done it?

He claimed no. What little they found in the house seemed to indicate that the previous owner had many past enemies which...wasn’t completely a lie.

He asked what had happened to the monsters in that house.

They respectfully declined to answer and ended the call soon after.

The next person he called was Felix, asking if he knew anything about what happened.

“Well, I mean, I got a call from the police about it too-” Felix explained. But his voice sounded reluctant, like he was holding something back. There was an awkward pause of silence-the Swede seemed somewhat anxious to fill the void. “But just as well, man, good fucking riddance. We were planning on razing that place anyway.”

“Yeah, but-Felix-”

“I don’t know anything about it. _Jesus, Mark.”_

“ _Felix-_ ” Mark’s face settled into a frown. He wasn’t going to lecture the man. He wasn’t going to blame him. But it did trouble him that the house was now gone. Although the monsters within might be long gone now-courtesy of the government-what if any kind of helpful information burned down along with it?

What if Jack’s seizure was somehow linked to the house burning to the ground?

So instead he shook his head and let out a small sigh, dragging a hand down his face to rub his eyes.

“If you need to talk, just know that I’ll always be here,” he assured Felix. “We all will.”

It was on the last few days of January that Ethan started hearing the voice, though he almost wrote it off as nothing. He was wearing his headphones, playing through some game that had to be an made while the programmers were on LSD or something-as hard as he tried, he couldn’t see how this game was made otherwise. ‘Everything is Going to be Okay’, the game was called-and it was full of flashing lights and colors and little animations of weird creatures that made all these quick, pitched little quips and were just straight-up weird. Everybody requested it though-who was he one to deny them?

_‘There’s no escape. Not really.’_

The voice caught him off guard so suddenly-it was unlike any of the other voices in the game. It wasn’t quite pitched, or at least, it wasn’t quite in the same way as the creatures. His eyes flickered about with a slight, confused frown as he tried to figure out what in the game was speaking-if there was anything speaking those words at all-and who exactly the voice reminded him of.

_‘Even an existence like this is too good to be true after everything that happened. After everything you all did and went though. You know it’s probably not even true.’_

His eyebrows furrowed-in actuality, there was that a looming feeling he got from time to time. They had gotten lucky, perhaps even _too_ lucky for what happened to even be real. But he never really gave it much thought.

He didn’t want to.

But the game wouldn’t be saying that. The game wouldn’t...it wouldn’t know, so...

Slowly he realized-he took off his headphones and looked around.

 _‘Because happy endings aren’t a thing and_ **_you know this._ ** _’_

He paled. It was at that point it hit him whose voice it sounded like-

His own.

And it didn’t sound like it was just in his head. No, it practically sounded like it was coming from _outside, from somewhere around him, seriously what the hell-_

He wasted no time calling up his teacher that night. She picked up after only a few rings; he explained to her that he was hearing some sort of a voice.

She instructed him to return immediately.

He wasted no time in doing so.

And still, Jack slept.

January passed into February. Valentine’s Day came and went. It was on that night, dateless but with a couple of friends, that Cry decided to go out and get a few drinks, then return home to stream. Those of the Late Night Crew that weren’t tied up in their own plans came up with a list of silly dating games and other such nonsense to play, just a lighthearted night of finding the most ridiculous future waifus and husbandos they could possibly manage to achieve.

“Yeah. Yeah, no, I’m pretty sure she’s actually got a _lot_ more problems than just that,” Cry remarked between giggles as he leaned back in his chair and straightened his glasses, an empty margarita glass next to his computer (as he’d made an extra drink upon coming home). “Yeah, I think you oughta go for it, man. You give her that di- Dinner. I meant dinner. Yes.” Another giggle. “That is clearly what I meant.”

Movement in the corner of his eye; he sighed and swiveled in his chair as he opened his mouth to speak to his cat.

He saw nothing.

The man blinked once, but then shrugged it off, shaking his head. “Dammit, AK,” he whispered under his breath. Moving to speak into the mic again, he said, “Uh-just a second guys, gotta step away for a moment.”

Even in the light haze of inebriation, he couldn’t help but feel a chill shoot up his spine, couldn’t shake off that feeling of eyes on him. It probably really was just his cat...probably. Nonetheless, that unforgotten feeling of paranoia from the mansion crept over him and he quickly crossed the room to the door to make sure it was shut before locking it and returning to his seat. He hurried back over to his chair and plopped down, leaning forward again. “Okay guys, I’m back.”

“Everything okay?” Angel asked, a note of worry in her voice.

“Wha-yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine, everything’s fine. I think my cat’s just over here trying to spook me.” He rolled his eyes, turning them back to the screen to read some of the text of the dating game again. “Alright now, where were we? Uh-right-right, okay, there we go! Uh-Angel, I think it’s your tur-”

His voice dropped off immediately as he heard a creak behind him. He froze, thinking for just a split second that it was just one of the monsters. _No no no. Not here. Dammit not here. Oh god why-_

Willing his muscles to move again, he pushed himself back around to face the rest of the room, letting out the breath he didn’t even realize he was holding up until now when he saw nothing but empty space. He stared at the space for a long moment-a lot longer than he would’ve cared to admit until he was shaken from his state by the sound of Angel’s voice behind him.

“Cry? Hey, Cry, you still there?”

Cry stared at the spot for a moment more, eyes wide. He raised a hand to point at the spot-mostly down towards the floor. “Don’t...don’t _do_ that,” he whispered under his breath before turning back around to face the computer again. “Uh-yeah, sorry guys.”

“Hold on just a sec.” He noticed as Angel switched over to a private channel and he went to follow suit. “Cry? What’s going on over there?’

“Uh-ah. Oh god. Um-I think I’m fairly alright over here. I’m okay, yeah,” he replied. _Bullshit._ Even to his own ears, he certainly didn’t _sound_ okay. “Sorry, I think I’m just a little bit jumpy tonight for some reason.”

“Do you need to step away for a minute?”

“Uh-I might actually to grab something from the kitchen,” he admitted.

“Why don’t you go do-”

And then her voice just stopped. Angel’s voice stopped and he stared at the screen, blinking a few times in surprise.

“Uh-”

He put his hand on the mouse and scooted it side to side a few times-the cursor remained locked in place. This time he really did heave a sigh and leaned back in his chair, moving his fingers up under his glasses to rub his eyes a few times. “Oh...god. _Fuck.”_ He whispered with a slight whine. “Goddammit, computer. _Again?_ ”

He shook his head and did a force quit, working to reboot the computer. Once it was in the rebooting process, he moved to his feet and stretched a bit, turning to head out of his room. His cell went off, a message from Angel and Russ-he quickly texted them back that it was nothing to be alarmed about, his computer just crapped out again and he’d be back on in a second. He looked up at his computer again and eyed it for a moment as he lowered his phone and shoved it back into his pocket-this was gonna take a minute. So he turned to head over to the door-

And came face-to-face with an entity that _looked_ like him, except wearing a Sup Guy mask.

A Sup Guy mask with a wide, jagged grin-

His breath caught as the whiteness of the mask popped against the shadows, the eyeholes black, bottomless depths. The figure tilted his head at him, almost nose-to-nose as a crazed laugh seemed to bubble up from him. Cry took a generous step back, about falling against the desk; his eyes dropped to the figure’s hands, seeing the electric blue lines flicker.

This couldn’t be real.

This couldn’t be real.

This had to be the alcohol, he was...dreaming or having some kind of drunk hallucination or-

This couldn’t be real.

He righted himself against the desk, but when he looked again, the figure was gone. He suddenly realized his hands were clammy, his breath was stilted and uneven, he was probably pale as a ghost with eyes as wide as saucers. His heart was racing. Oh god. Oh god, what the hell did he just see? That couldn’t have been real. Couldn’t have been. He quickly shook his head, moving to hurry out of his room to grab a glass of water and a cookie.

Even if it wasn’t alcohol-related, it-it couldn’t have been more than just some kind of bizarre PTSD attack.

No need to freak people out. No need to tell anyone in the stream; they didn’t know what exactly happened Halloween night, and honestly he kind of preferred to keep it that way. No need to tell anyone who _was_ there that night, either-from what he’d been hearing, they all had their own problems to deal with. The last thing they needed was one more-he wouldn’t be that burden for them to bear. He was determined not to become that.

But when he grabbed what he needed from the kitchen, headed back to his room, slipped inside and went back over to his computer…

The computer was already open. Not just that, but wordpad was inexplicably up.

With one big, bold message written across it.

 

**YOUR**

**FAULT**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of things happening in the wake of recovery-not all of them good! And Jack still has yet to wake up. I'd give it about two to three more chapters before this fic gets wrapped, so hang on tight for just a tiny bit longer. In the meantime, really enjoying the discussions and theorizing to this fic in recent chapters! The alpha-numerical sequence that appeared on the Patrick end-there _is_ a meaning to that, one just has to use the right code(s) to be able to crack it. So thank you all so much for all your discussion, your comments, your fanworks and overall support. It's this kind of stuff that keeps me writing and inspired, and I don't think we ever would've gotten this far if not for you guys. So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	59. Chapter 58

It was passing into March when everyone finally received the text from Signe. It was simple, kept to only two words.

They were the most powerful two words read in a while to mostly everyone in the group.

_He’s awake._

The reaction was immediate, of course. Mark made a quick video about how he’d be gone for a brief time before heading off to Brighton, followed by the rest of his crew. Team Edge remained behind, as did Ken, the Patricks, Cry-either because they were dealing with family things or recovering from their own respective ailments and issues or because they just weren’t able to head overseas at the drop of a hat. But they all sent their best along with Mark and crew, and requested the opportunity to contact Jack as soon as he was actually able.

“Felix,” Mark greeted as he, Tyler, Amy and Kathryn approached the small gaggle standing in the hallway. Felix stood with Marzia and Robin, the first of them looking far worse for wear but nobody pointed it out. Still, he smiled as the group approached and gave a small wave.

“Hey guys,” he said.

Tyler looked around curiously, taking everyone in. “Marzia, Robin,” he greeted. He frowned slightly. “...Didn’t Ethan say he was gonna meet us?”

“He’s coming up with his teacher, yeah,” Marzia affirmed. “We’ve been texting him. But the train got delayed, so it’s probably gonna be another hour before they make it here.”

“Have you guys seen Jack yet?” Mark asked. “Or has it mostly just been family allowed in?”

Felix made a face. “I mean, I’ve seen him a few times since he woke up,” he replied. “But man, he is out of it. He seems to be having trouble holding conversation for more than a few minutes before falling right back to sleep. The doctors said we can probably expect this for another day or two, at least.”

Robin smirked slightly in spite of the situation. “Even though Jack’s last words were ‘sleep is for the weak’ before nodding off,” he added.

“Does he know how long he’s been in a coma, or...why or how?” Mark asked.

“I think he’s got an idea of the ‘how long’ at least. But I’m not completely sure anything else has actually clicked yet-we mentioned it’s been about five months or so and the first response he had was ‘holy shit I need to make videos’ before he passed right back out, so…” Felix shrugged.

“That sounds like him, at least,” Tyler remarked softly with a small smile.

“The doctors want us to go pretty easy on him,” Robin warned. “They’re cautious and want to avoid any major shocks until he’s much more awake. Even then…”

Mark nodded. “Understood,” he agreed. “He deserves that much, at least.”

“Anyway, he’s awake right now, but Signe’s visiting with him. We’re going a little easy on the number of visitors at a time,” Felix explained. “His family was here not too long ago-Malcolm especially has been popping in, but I think he’s kinda settled a bit more into the area for the time being, for Jack’s sake. For the moment though, we just kinda figured personal time between Jack and Signe would be for the best.”

Amy nodded slightly at this. “Understandable. Should we hang around in that case or…” She looked around at everyone. “Maybe we should pick up some lunch for everyone while we wait?”

“Oh! Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Marzia agreed, looking around at everyone. “There’s a Pizzaface just a few streets down!”

“Pizza sounds good,” Kathyrn remarked, looking around at the others.

Tyler noticed the reluctance in Mark’s eyes and nodded slightly. “Uh-how about the four of us go grab some lunch for everyone? Mark, you get us all caught up on the details about what’s been going on around here.” Looking over at Marzia, he added, “If you could be our navigator...?”

Mark gave Amy’s hand a squeeze before he watched Tyler and the girls head off, then looked back over at Jack’s room. His gaze lingered for a long moment, perking up slightly when he saw the door open and Signe poke her head out. The woman blinked at him, smiled, made a gesture to hold on a moment before motioning Robin inside. The two other men watched as Robin softly excused himself and headed into Jack’s room.

Just as well.

There were things that probably needed discussion that even Robin likely wouldn’t understand, even after all he’d seen on the morning following that nightmare.

Mark turned back to Felix, keeping his voice low.

“Have you heard anything from Cry lately?” he asked.

Felix blinked, then frowned and shook his head. “Not a whole lot, no,” he replied. “He said he’s having some tech problems-but I haven’t heard from him too much since around Valentine’s Day.” He bit his lip before shaking his head again and sucking in a breath. “And Ken?”

“I headed over to visit him around Christmas for a few days.” Mark shifted a bit. “The whole recovery process has been taking its toll on him, but I think being around his family’s helping. And you. Your support’s been a pretty noticeable influence; he was just starting to come out of an emotional slump when I was visiting.”

Felix cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly but smiled slightly. “I’m glad. That’s really good to hear,” he replied. “Marzia and I are making plans to go over and visit him in May, so…”

Mark nodded. “Well, you know he’s gonna be happy to see you guys,” he remarked. “And hey, he’ll probably have a little bit more movement by then, too. He’s finally starting to get some back into his fingers.”

“Really?” Felix perked up at this, a look of relief and pride flashing through his eyes. “I _told_ him he’ll be back to moving if he just gives it enough time and continuous rehab.”

“Well, we’re all hoping for the best,” Mark agreed.

“And Team Edge…? Tyler?” Felix questioned.

Mark smiled faintly. “Again, I think in the case of Team Edge, it’s been a big help that they’re with their families again. I mean, don’t get me wrong-they still seem to be going through their rough patches and all that. I honestly don’t think anyone’s come out of this unscathed, but…” His smile lessened a little. “I’m just glad we got all three of them out. Besides obvious reasons, I can only imagine how badly it would’ve affected them if we didn’t.”

He cleared his throat. “Uh-as for Tyler.” He looked off in the direction Tyler and the girls had gone off in before looking back at Felix. “He seems to be pretty alright. I imagine it’s probably not as alright as he tries to make it seem-and when you’ve known him for as long as I have, I mean…” He shook his head. “But…” He let out a small sigh and scratched the back of his neck, shuffling. “Honestly even then it can be so hard to tell sometimes when he really puts forth an effort. But I mean...I think he’s doing his best to be strong for the rest of us. And that’s fine-so long as he knows that the rest of us are here for him just as much.”

Felix nodded, silent for a moment. “MatPat? Steph?” he finally asked. “Have you seen them at all lately? I mean, you guys live in the same area, so…”

Mark sighed. “I’ve seen them a few times,” he replied. “Uh-Steph seems to be recovering fairly well. And they’ve had no problems with the baby, thank god. Mat’s getting therapy-as best he can under the circumstances, at any rate. Steph thinks he’s suffering from some pretty severe PTSD. Although...I wonder…” Mark frowned as he let his words trail off into his thoughts, remembering when they defeated Anti. It was a pressing concern of his: was it really just PTSD or some kind of aftermath…?

And if it was more so the latter, why wasn’t he getting it nearly as bad?

He cleared his throat in an attempt to shake away the issue. Those were thoughts that could be saved for later, not while they were catching up. Instead he asked, “And uh-Ethan?”

Felix shrugged. “I mean, we’ve visited a few times,” he replied. “And he’s come down to visit. It’s not exactly a short train ride though, man-that’s like four hours, so-”

“Yeah, I understand,” Mark agreed, nodding.

“What _happened_ on that end, anyway? I thought he was gonna be staying over in LA a bit longer than he did?”

Mark’s face fell fully into a frown before he sighed and shook his head. “I don’t really know,” he admitted. “He only really left with a moment’s notice-I don’t think he himself was really expecting it, so-” He pursed his lips for a moment before continuing. “He didn’t really go into detail over what it was about though.”

Felix frowned at this, hesitant for a moment before asking, “Is everything okay though? Between you and him? Because I mean, I’m not the only one that’s seemed to notice…”

Mark grimaced at this, but then looked away feeling...guilty? Reluctant? Stubborn? All of the above?

“I dunno,” he muttered. “I mean, I guess it’s just this thing of Ethan going off and practicing _magic_ and half our problems were caused by magic in the first place-”

“Maybe that’s _why_ he’s practicing it though,” Felix reasoned. “He’s trying to understand…” His eyes darted over at Jack’s door in a glance. “I think a _lot_ of us are still trying to understand. And I mean...the more he knows about it, the less likely something like _this_ will ever happen again. At least to us? And if it does, the more prepared he’ll be against it.”

Mark frowned. “You think so?” he asked.

Felix shifted. “I met his teacher a few times. She seemed okay. Kind of Dr.-Strange-Ancient-One mysterious but...she wasn’t exactly giving off any _bad_ vibes. It definitely wasn’t like how it was with Anti, if that says anything at all.”

Mark relaxed just a tiny bit at this. “That’s good to know,” he noted. “In that case, I might just have to meet her sometime in the near future.”

“I think she’s coming here with Ethan,” Felix replied. “So maybe you’ll get the chance to meet her then.”

“Maybe…” Mark agreed, but this time he sounded a little unsettled at the idea. Nonetheless, he shook it off and looked Felix directly in the eyes. “And you?” he asked. “And how have _you_ been doing?”

Felix couldn’t even meet his eyes. Not really. Instead he scratched the back of his head and neck as he looked away before finally sighing. “It’s been...difficult,” he confessed, albeit still somewhat elusively. But he knew he couldn’t get away with just saying that-not with Mark. Not really. So he then shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know what to say, man. I’ve been pissed off and frustrated and just...maybe most importantly, I just can’t figure out _why._ Why did something like that have to happen to _us?_ Why _Jack?_ And I get how shitty and self-important that might sound in a way, but-”

“No,” Mark interrupted, shaking his head. “On the contrary-I actually think that sounds pretty normal. I think just about anyone in our situation would be asking the same questions… Why did it have to happen? And why to us?” He shrugged. “Wrong place at the wrong time, I guess? That mansion was out in the middle of nowhere, after all, so I imagine it didn’t get too many visitors.”

“Until us,” Felix noted bitterly.

“But we made the best of it. We did what we could-and ultimately, I get the feeling we managed to pull off the impossible,” Mark pointed out, eyeing him. It was something that took him forever to accept, and even then, it was still sometimes a struggle. But it did help to make things easier sometimes. And if it could make things just a little bit easier for Felix, too…

Felix was quiet for a long while, staring at Jack’s door. They both were. Mark knew it wasn’t enough to completely console the Swede-he wasn’t expecting it to. But finally Felix spoke, looking back at him. “And what about you? How have you been doing all this time?”

Mark looked back at him and blinked, caught by surprise. But then he frowned a little and shifted, looking away again. “I mean, it’s been about what you’d expect,” he finally admitted. “Tyler thinks I’ve been a bit too hard on myself; the others have started pointing it out too. And I’m steadily getting over it. That aside, I mean...nightmares…” He shrugged. “Honestly though, I think we’ve all been suffering from that.”

Felix frowned a bit at this, blue eyes studying him sharply. “So no side-effects or anything from using the book-?”

But Mark wasn’t given much opportunity to reply at that point, as the door creaked open and Robin stepped out with Signe. “He’s asking about you,” Robin announced, looking at the two. “Both of you.”

“Go easy on him?” Signe asked softly, to which Mark frowned sympathetically and nodded.

“Of course,” he replied. He offered her an attempted smile to lighten things a little, adding, “The only one we’ll let give him a hard time for the next few days is gonna be you, if anyone.”

To his relief, Signe gave a small smile at this in return, replying, “You know it. Thanks, Mark.” She stepped aside, holding the door open just enough for Mark and Felix to slip inside and head over to the bed.

By this point the Irishman’s green hair had returned to brown, having grown out enough in his sleep that the dyed parts were snipped away. He looked thinner and paler than ever, although his facial hair had been kept tidy thanks to others caring for him while he slept. His blue eyes peered at the two sleepily from behind his glasses before he smiled widely upon seeing who it was.

“Mark, Felix, hey,” he whispered, still sounding slightly hoarse-like a person who had just woken up (understandably so) and hadn’t quite gotten the opportunity to exercise their vocal chords yet.

“Jack,” Mark whispered, coming to a stop by Jack’s bed with Felix. He took in the sight before him and swallowed, shoving back anything too intense-he needed to keep himself steady to maintain a calm enough atmosphere. No need to alarm the potato.

“What happened?” Jack whispered. “I keep asking but nobody’s really...giving me any direct answers. They said the livestream got canceled?”

Mark and Felix stared for a moment, startled, before exchanging looks with each other and then looking back down at Jack. “Well... _yeah_ , considering everything that happened,” Felix replied. He squinted a bit at the Irishman, taking the nearby chair and leaning forward to study him a bit closer. “How much do you remember?”

“We were cleaning up the place and organizing some, yeah?” Jack asked, blinking a few times as he looked back and forth at the two. “We were getting ready for the thing.”

Felix froze, then looked over at Mark as if to ask for guidance-or at least his opinion. Mark continued to stare for a long moment with slightly-wide eyes as the Irishman looked back and forth between them somewhat nervously.

Jack licked dry lips and swallowed before finally asking, “Ah-is that wrong-?”

“You were in an accident,” Mark replied abruptly.

Jack frowned. Felix shot the American a look.

“We happened across some kind of really bad chemical in that house. We’re not sure what it was, just that you had a really bad reaction to it. So much so that you’ve ultimately been asleep for the past five months.”

Jack stared with that frown still on his face, as if trying to discern the truth in Mark’s story. But it didn’t quite look like his brain was back up and running at 100% either, so instead he winced as his eyes turned to stare up at the ceiling and he let out a sigh. “Ah...goddammit,” he whispered. “Sorry guys. I guess we should’ve done it back at the studio or something, huh? We’ll have to...reschedule for another livestream later or...something…” He couldn’t help the yawn that’d escaped his mouth. Glancing over at the two, a note of worry crossed through his eyes as he added, “And the others? Are they okay?”

Mark pursed his lips for a second. _No. No, everyone wasn’t okay. But-_

“They’re all as okay as they can be,” Mark replied evasively. “But everyone’s worried about you, man.”

“Everyone definitely got out of that house, so…” Felix added feebly, having not expected the sudden need to lie so drastically.

“You kinda took the brunt of everything that went wrong that night. The good news-if there is any to that-is that it was enough to warn everyone that the place was dangerous,” Mark affirmed.

Jack continued to stare back at them for a few long, quiet, awkward moments before he blinked sleepily and settled back down more so into the mattress and pillows. “In that case, I’m really glad to hear it,” he muttered. He winced a bit. “Ah-dammit-I really need to make some videos-the community must be _freaking out-_ ”

“Don’t worry, Jack, we got it covered,” Felix reassured. “We’ve been manning things for a while now.”

“Yeah, you just focus on getting yourself better,” Mark added softly. “It won’t do anyone any good to overwork yourself after sleeping for five months.”

A long silence settled over the trio before Jack finally muttered, “...I’m not dying my hair again.”

The randomness was enough to bring on a slight chuckle from the other two as Felix added, “Good plan. You’ve had enough chemicals go to your brain, potato.”

* * *

 

Once the two were out of the hospital room with the door firmly closed, Felix rounded on Mark. “Mark? What the hell-?”

Signe looked over at the pair, hurrying over with Robin. “What is it?” she asked, frowning as her eyes darted from one to the other. “What happened?”

“Is everything alright?” Robin asked.

“Jack barely remembers anything about what happened that night. And then when asked, Mark didn’t tell Jack the truth about what happened,” Felix replied.

“Mark-”

Mark sighed and shook his head. “The rest of us already have to live with the memories of that nightmare,” he defended. “We’re all dealing with the aftermath. If anyone deserves an escape from all that, it’s Jack. He’s suffered more than enough. If he doesn’t remember that place, then so be it. To be honest, I’d rather he not have to remember a single thing.”

“He will still have questions,” Signe pointed out. “Nothing is the same since he came out of there.”

“Hell, man, the government might even tell him themselves,” Felix pointed out. “They’re bound to also have questions.”

“If that happens, we’ll take it as it goes,” Mark replied. “Personally, I think this is the best case scenario. We have him back this way. _Completely._ If any of you disagree...then you go in there and tell him. I won’t stop you. But risking those kinds of memories waking up in his mind-it’s not gonna be me.”

There was a lingering moment of hesitation-in fact, a tap on his shoulder and it was almost like a moment of haze passed through his mind, pierced through only by a faint ringing, a tinnitus he suspected he’d developed in the wake of the joint spell cast back at the mansion. In that moment, Signe quietly excused herself to head back into Jack’s room-

Mark’s face scrunched into a faint grimace for a moment as he shook his head, trying to clear the fog that had suddenly rolled over his mind. As he did, he could see a petite blond woman walking away from them, past some people in suits who were also leaving. His cringe lessened into a troubled frown as he looked around, noticing everyone else seemed to be in just as much of a daze but were also in their own stages of shaking their way out of it.

He could also still hear the tinnitus, actually somewhat clearer now.

Huh. That wasn’t something he even really noticed much when _wide awake_ , nevermind out amongst friends or in public.

“...Felix?” he asked, calling focus to the Swede from his own spell. Felix looked over at him, blinked a few times with bewilderment, then looked around before his eyes drifted back to Mark.

“...What the hell was that-?”

“I don’t know,” Mark replied lowly, still frowning as he watched Robin slowly coming out of it as well.

Felix looked around for a moment. “And Signe-?”

Mark looked around for a brief moment before looking over at the door. “Um-in Jack’s room, I think-” he replied, making his way over to the door with some sense of urgency and pulling it open.

Signe stood there for several long moments, looking just as dazed as Jack meanwhile slept just a few feet away-

But something was wrong.

He reached over to give Signe a small shake to her shoulder to help snap her out of her trance, taking several steps past her to get a closer look at Jack. The Irishman’s IV was torn from his arm, the heart monitor was slowly simmering down to a far more normal pace.

 _“Jack?”_ he whispered, but then he turned to Signe. “Signe, watch over him. I’ll go get a doctor.”

“What-?”

“His IV came out,” Mark replied, rushing back out of the room and past the others as Signe meanwhile searched for something to press to the bleeding spot. He hurried to the counter, calling over the first doctor he saw and was soon followed back by a couple. It wasn’t long before they shooed both him and Signe out of the room and back over to the others, leaving them to explain what the hell was going on.

“So that was just-” Felix began.

Robin nodded, looking bewildered. “Yeah. Strange. Last thing I think I remember was a stranger bumping into me…”

“You too?” Mark asked, frowning. He turned to Signe. “Signe?”

Signe looked troubled, biting her lip. “I…” she began. She thought carefully for a moment before looking up at the others worriedly. “I don’t think I went into the room alone.”

The others stared for a moment before Mark looked past Felix again with realization. “The blond woman,” he suddenly said.

“Huh?”

“There was a small blond woman turning the corner when I came to,” Mark replied.

“Wait-wait-wait-a small blond woman?” Felix asked, raising a hand. “With long hair?”

Mark thought back for a moment before nodding.

“...You mean like Guin-?” Felix began.

“We need to tell him,” Signe murmured, anxiously glancing back at Jack’s door. “About everything.”

“Wait, wait, wait-” Felix muttered. He continued to stare at the door for a long moment before frowning and shaking his head. “ _Shit._ Alright. I _was_ in agreement with that side of the argument. But I just realized: Jack gave up his memories to remember everything that went on in the house so he could help us. Right?”

“Yeah…” Mark agreed.

“Now he remembers everything he gave up, but not the memories of the house.” Felix sighed in frustration. “Dammit.”

“You’re saying he can only have one or the other,” Robin concluded, troubled.

“And telling him would probably risk bringing the mansion memories back…” Mark added.

“I would really rather him have memories of before,” Signe murmured, frowning worriedly. She looked back over at the door. “That said though, after what just happened…”

“Yeah, we’re really going to have to keep a close eye on him. And _for_ him,” Felix muttered.

“Guys?”

The group looked over as Tyler and the girls approached with a couple of pizzas. The taller man already looked rather concerned as he studied them. “Something happen? How’s Jack?”

“Jack is…” Mark began, glancing back over towards the door.

Robin looked around at everyone, then back at the others. “He’s fine, but something might’ve happened while you were gone,” he replied. He did a quick sweep of the area before making a nod to the waiting area. “Let’s sit down and have lunch; we’ll explain then.” As a few others looked ready to protest, he added, “The doctors won’t even let us near the room if we try and go in right now. I’m sure they have it covered.”

Everyone seemed hesitant but finally Amy nodded. “Yeah. Makes sense enough, yeah.” She shifted over to Mark, slipping her hand around his arm. “C’mon, everyone looks hungry.”

“Uh-yeah, you guys go on ahead,” Mark replied, still sounding a bit troubled. “I’ll only be a minute-” He glanced over at Felix. “Can I borrow your phone? I need to make a call.”

“Uh-yeah, sure.” Felix pulled out his phone, opening it and handing it over. “Don’t be doing any weird shit on it.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mark rolled his eyes, giving Amy a faint reassuring smile before the group headed off just down the hall. He looked down at the phone, opening the contacts and hitting a name on the list, following it up with the ‘call’ button as soon as the others were just out of earshot.

He stood there for several long moments, waiting as he listened to it ring-

As he heard some sort of little musical tune playing faintly from...somewhere.

A frown crossed his face and he looked around, confused. It _had_ to be coincidence, right?

This was just a coincidence.

He wandered in the direction of the muffled sound, stopping when he reached the door. He continued to listen for a moment before resting his hand on the knob. The ringing ended, as did the music-although the piercing sound in his ears only seemed to have increased by the tiniest fraction. He paused to glance down at the phone, waiting for a few seconds before calling again-

_Sure enough, the music started up again._

He twisted the knob and pushed the door open, making an apologetic gesture to the nurses and signaling that he only needed to be in there for a moment to get something. Jack seemed to still be out as they were re-inserting the IV and checking over his vitals as he slept. Mark made his way over to the bedside table, doing his best to stay out of the nurse’s way when he knelt down and reached underneath…

Withdrawing a phone and holding it up to look at the screen…

_Felix._

By this point the ringing in his ears had reached a disconcertingly noticeable new volume and pitch, but still, he ignored it.

He held up Felix’s phone with his other hand, staring at the name on the screen in confusion and concern, feeling a sense of anxiety well up within him.

_Ethan._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shiiiit. Sorry for how ridiculously long it took for this chapter to come out; I more or less had it written but had to add a couple things in there...and then once I did it ended up being really clunky...and _then_ I needed to give it an overhaul and figure out how to make it flow so much better but couldn't really figure out how to smooth it out until several days ago or so. But we've about reached the end here guys! And even here, weird shit is still happening. But all that said, Jack's finally up and awake again! Um-I do still need to finish it, but I'd estimate there being roughly one chapter left. Brace yourselves! Also, if you haven't seen already, I've finally started releasing The Lost Memories, most of which are short little blurbs that touch on notable moments in other time loops. I'll be updating to that here and there, a lot more so once this fic is finished up, so go check that out. Also a shout-out to Ink-Mug's epic art and speedpaint video, Aboleo-go check it out, it's really cool! So for all the kudos, comments, discussion and fan stuff, and just overall support-thank you guys so much. This fic probably wouldn't have made it nearly so far if not for you guys and your continuing motivation. So as always! So if you liked it, drop a kudo, drop a comment, and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter. Until then!


	60. Chapter 59

The noise was blaring.

Shattering the eerie silence of the dark corridors that seemed to stretch on in both directions, twisting around like a warping maze.

It was gone almost as soon as it appeared. He looked around in confusion again in an attempt to find the source.

Like the lights on an alarm, it burst through the silence again, forcing its way into every corner of the surrounding space.

No escape-

No escape-

He tripped, stumbled. A shock in his limbs as if firmly setting down a foot that had fallen asleep. His eyes immediately opened and he looked around in a torrent of confusion and disorientation, feeling them grow wider in wild panic.

He could feel grass and dirt under his bare feet.

He could feel the cool air on his skin-

This wasn’t right.

This was not right, this was-

He turned around to see a road with the pavement right by him an inch or two higher in elevation. Twisting around further he could see a car heading off into the distance, its lights forging a path off into the night-

He twisted around again, confused.

Trees on either side of him. Light off in the distance-

_Where the hell was he?_

These weren’t the corridors he wandered-

That-no-

That wasn’t real.

The corridors weren’t-they were a memory but they weren’t real.

He let out a slow, shaky exhale for a moment as his fingertips went to his temples and he wobbled a fraction on weakening knees.

No-no-no-

Trace back.

_Where was he supposed to be?_

What was...the last thing he could remember…?

He sucked in an inhale, let it out slowly again, shaky and unsettled but still there.

His head was pounding, but he did his best, strained his memory to remember what…what he saw before the corridors-

_“You’re working on the code again, huh?”_

He could see his wife’s face, her eyes staring back at him with concern.

_“Maybe it does mean something but what-”_

He sank to his knees, feeling all the energy sapped out of him and a little dizzy.

_“-do we do if it does-?”_

He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling his head throb and pulse. He waited for a couple of minutes before trying again, but it was like trying to push through a blizzard of static.

_“-Anti’s gone. Right?”_

He scooted over to the pavement but sat only on the very edge so as to be out of the way of cars, taking several more deep breaths. As he did, he rocked a few times, trying to regain his bearings.

Oh god. Ohhh god this was way worse than he thought it was.

A faint rustle made him jump, but he settled again upon realizing it was just the wind in the trees. He pulled his arms around him, only then realizing that he was actually wearing a shirt-

He didn’t go to bed that way.

He checked the rest of himself, seeing he was still wearing his sleep pants but neglected to put on shoes. Go figure for that-

And go figure he didn’t have a phone on him, either.

He squeezed his eyes shut again and shook his head. He’d had some issues with sleepwalking recently-on the rare occasion that he _did_ sleep long enough in one go to even do so-but it’d never gotten this bad. He’d never actually left the house before, he’d never gotten _lost_ quite like this.

Did Steph know he was missing?

Was she looking for him right now?

Oh god, how far had he traveled from home? On foot?

On barefoot?

With a forced surge of energy through his limbs, he rose to his feet-

Gasped and cursed softly at the sudden pain that shot through them.

He quickly sat back down again, checked the bottoms of his feet. He couldn’t see too well in this darkness, it was mostly just the moon he had to go by until he reached the next streetlamp but-

Oh-god his feet were cut up. Bloody. _How did none of that wake him up?_ He swallowed hard, picking out any glass or other suspect items as carefully as possible.

A-at least he was up to date on his tetanus shots but still.

His mind reeled again, he sat back and stared up at the sky as he tried to get a bearing on what to do, where to go. He didn’t even have a _clue_ as to where he was headed before he woke up. Just...aimless walking, maybe? Did he really get through the locked doors of his house in his _sleep?_

Well-at least he didn’t try driving.

Once again he forced himself up into a stand, did his best to push past the pain as he started making his way stiffly down the road in the opposite direction of the car. He thought...it kinda looked like he could see light glimmering in the near distance.

Buildings.

Civilization.

He continued for a bit until he started getting into what looked like a sort of residential area, first seeing a few fast food places, then just a little ways past it, some turn-offs to what probably went into neighborhoods. His brain was fuzzy but…

Did this area look familiar?

He pushed past the thought, made his way to the closest thing that still looked open: a McDonalds. By this time he’d found some sidewalk and was gratefully walking along it instead, feeling slightly more secure in his (stinging) footing. As soon as he reached the building, he turned to wander inside and up toward the counter. The harsh fluorescents overhead were almost painful, and he had to squint his eyes for the first few seconds to adjust to the sudden change in lighting.

All and all, he must’ve looked like a lunatic, so he was thankful to see that there was nobody immediately at the counter when he entered. They hopefully wouldn’t notice his bare feet or anything (and he hoped to god they wouldn’t notice any blood that might’ve been left behind by his feet), but maybe instead just think he was too lazy to change out of sleep clothes. He ran hands back through his hair in hopes to pat it down and smooth it out as much as he could as he shifted a little, peering through the counter and shelves to get a look at any employees.

There was a guy who was standing at the drive-thru window, although his attention was turned mostly to his phone-it didn’t exactly look like he’d gotten any customers in a while.

The other employee-a young woman-made her way over to the counter, looking almost as tired as he was and certainly more bored. She headed over to the register closest to him, preparing to punch in an impending order. “Welcome to McDonalds, what can I get for you?”

“Uh-” Mathew bit his lip, his mind racing on how he was going to make this exchange seem as sane as he could possibly manage. He decided to go with one of the first things he could think of. His expression turned apologetic (and really, the feeling was actually sincere; the last thing he wanted was to drag anyone unsuspecting into his now almost-daily weirdness) and he twisted partway to point out the large window. “Sorry, I’m actually not here to order anything really. My car broke down in the Home Depot parking lot and my phone’s dead. You guys were the first people I found open-”

He turned back to her with a small, sheepish shrug. “Would it be alright for me to borrow a phone for just a second? My wife can call in a tow truck; I just need to give her a call.”

The woman studied him for a moment, but she didn’t look nearly as alarmed as he felt. So she finally raised a hand in a gesture to wait. “Just a second- Kameer!”

She headed off toward the drive-thru window, quietly exchanging some words with the man for a second. Although the man seemed reluctant, he finally emerged with the woman and headed over.

“My phone’s actually on the charger for a moment, but Kameer should have enough battery to make a call,” the woman replied.

“So long as it’s not a long one,” Kameer replied as he opened the phone to a number pad.

“It won’t be, don’t worry,” Mathew replied gratefully as he took the phone and punched in Stephanie’s number. “Thanks.”

“Sure, man.”

As he listened to the phone ring, the girl meanwhile leaned forward on the counter a bit, eyes narrowed slightly as she studied him. “...Haven’t I seen you somewhere before-?” she began. “Like on Youtube or something-?”

“Ungh...hello?”

The sound of his wife’s sleepy voice was like a wave of relief crashing over him; he made a quick ‘one moment’ gesture to the employees.

“Hey, Steph? Did I wake you?”

“I-” A pause, the sound of shuffling around. Then, “Mat?” A moment, then suddenly the voice on the other end was _much_ more awake. “Mat? Where are you?”

“I-I’m at a McDonalds. Hey, could you maybe come over here and pick me up?”

“I-yeah, which one?”

“Uh-” Mathew looked over at the employees, quietly asking what the address was-or at least the street. Upon getting a response, he relayed it back to Stephanie.

“Oh-god, Mat, what are you doing all the way out there?” A pause, then a worried, “Did you drive?”

“No-no, I- Hey, look, I’m fine. I’m at the McDonalds. I don’t really have my phone with me. Can you come soon?”

“Yeah, I-oh god, Mat, yeah, I’ll be there soon. Should be about fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“Thanks, Steph. I’ll see you soon.”

“Yeah-of course-see you soon-”

“I thought you were gonna ask her to call a tow truck?” Kameer asked with a frown as Mathew handed back the phone.

“Yeah, trust me, she knows. At the moment I’ll really just settle for pickup,” Mathew sighed. “It’s been a long night. But uh, thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“You guys mind if I wait for my ride here?”

The woman shrugged. “If you want,” she replied. “Let us know if you wanna order anything.”

“Yeah, I will, thanks.”

It was an awkward, drowsy twenty minutes as Mathew sat in one of the booths by the window, watching for the headlights that inevitably entered the parking lot. He gave a small, exhausted smile and a tiny wave when he saw the car door open, his wife hurrying out, shutting the door again and hurrying on inside. He couldn’t help but feel the pang of guilt when he saw the pale, frantic look on Stephanie’s face, the speed in her step as she rushed over.

“Mat? Mathew, are you okay?”

“I-hey, yeah, I’ll live-”

“How did you even get all the way out here? Did you sleepwalk all this way?”

Mathew snuck a glance at the counter, noticing the employees watching out of the corner of his eye. “Um-” he began as he pushed himself out of the booth. He gave a nod toward the door. “We can just-on the way home-”

Stephanie followed his gaze before nodding in understanding. “Yeah. Alright, buddy, c’mon-” She put an arm around him, moving to lead him back out to the car. Before they made it out to the parking lot, she stopped for a moment and looked back at the employees with a grateful expression. “Thanks for giving us a hand,” she replied.

“Oh-don’t mention it,” the woman replied with a shrug. “Probably the most eventful thing to happen all night. Plus it got Kameer off the phone with his girlfriend for ten seconds, so...”

Stephanie gave a tiny smile in understanding. “You guys have a good night,” she said before she and Mathew headed out to the car. As they emerged back out into the cool night air and crossed the parking lot, Stephanie shook her head, muttering, “Oh my god. I’m sorry, Mat, I can’t believe I didn’t wake up when you were out and about-”

“Hey. Hey, no, it’s alright. I’m sorry for having to call you all the way out here in the middle of the night. I know you really need your rest, what with the baby and all,” Mathew replied as he climbed into the passenger’s seat of the car.

There was a surprising amount of silence as they pulled out of the parking lot, both of them clearly mulling over their own thoughts and what to say next.

It was Stephanie who finally broke the silence.

“What are we gonna do?” she asked softly, her voice weighed with worry.

Mathew frowned a little as he stared out the window, the car now making its way down the road. What _were_ they going to do? What _could_ they do? If this was psychological, then there were precautions they could probably take-

...If it was anything magical, it was all going to be just that much harder.

“Call up the psychiatrist in the morning. Or a doctor. See if they can prescribe anything stronger or have any extra measures for extreme sleepwalking, I guess-”

Mathew’s words suddenly fell short. He blinked and leaned forward, peering out the window with more focus now as they passed a couple other signs. Then he looked around, the orientation as to where they were exactly finally starting to click into place.

“...Hold on- I just-” He looked at Stephanie with surprise and wide-eyed realization. “...Isn’t this kinda close to Tyler’s place?”

* * *

 

Eyes flickered through the darkness of the lonely forest, slowly adjusting to having only the illumination of a few mere moonbeams cast down through the canopy. Though it was March, there was still a chill in the Cornish air, and each breath came out like a wisp of smoke. The forest was dead silent, sans the sound of sneakers on the odd twig or rustling through what remained of the blanket of leaves on the ground. The creek from the flash flood months prior was gone at this point, having completely dried up-but no matter, for the moment at least.

When the forest finally opened up to a wide clearing, the figure slowed to a stop to stare and take in everything.

He never expected to return like _this_ , after all.

More importantly, he never expected to return to the site to find it in _this_ sort of state.

There were still deep tire treads in the hardened mud around the property, no doubt from government vehicles and equipment. A chain-length fence stood resolutely around the premises, but besides that and a few ‘Danger! Keep Out!’ signs, the site looked overall abandoned.

Standing in the center were the towering charred-out ruins, a husk of what was once reliable, impenetrable, imposing and grand in spite of its age-but now barely even a shadow of all its former glory.

He felt a deep relating empathy for it, so much so that it bordered on painful.

It made his blood boil.

Slowly he slid off his backpack, leaving it to rest on the ground at his side. Though he dared to stand about and take in the view for only a few moments, his following movements were a hair quicker and more deliberate. He leaned down and unzipped the pack, pulling it wide open and thumbing through one thing, then the next, then withdrawing the second thing with just a moment of gratefulness. He could’ve easily lost it-for ages at best, forever at worst. But just a couple of quick covert searches in the homes of friends back in the States, that’s all it really took. The item in question was passed along to Tyler, of course, and kept in the man’s home until he found it. He suspected easily when the man spoke of the other victims.

He could always take a moment to appreciate a person’s bleeding heart and curiosity.

Their guilt.

It was something that traditionally worked in his favor.

With the item now in his hands, he walked forward until he came to a stop at the fence. His eyes slid over to the hole that had been cut in the chainlink, just large enough for a person to crouch down and slip through-and he took full advantage, grimacing with a faint hiss when the metal scratched against pale skin. He ignored it otherwise, clutching the item under one of his arms and close to his chest as he pushed forward and took several steps closer. The iron-wrought gate to the original fence was chained up tight; he made his way around until he reached a stump close to the fence, stepped up onto it to give him a boost. It wasn’t too much difficult to lift himself up and over the tall fence after that, as he’d done so many times before. As soon as he found footing on the ground again, he walked back around to the front, taking a few steps along the walkway.

He couldn’t help himself, staring for a moment longer at the gaping front doorway. It was deprived of any barrier now, open wide to show the inky darkness within. He’d be spooked if he were any other, but instead he let a sigh slip from his lips, as if this was a mild inconvenience, an irritation. His fingers pushed back through his hair and he shook his head, turning away and moving to a corner of the property. As he walked, he brought his hand back down and flipped open the ancient book, not stopping until he reached the page he was looking for, his eyes skimming through the text.

His feet finally came to a stop when he reached one of the four brick pillars that connected the iron-wrought fence, eyes drifting up at one of the stone vases settled up on top. He was barely tall enough to reach and had to move onto toes and stretch-but finally his fingertips brushed midway on the vase and he watched the old, worn inscription light up. He then made his way to the other three pillars, touching each vase in turn as he meanwhile whispered peculiar words under his breath. His path finally brought him back onto the walkway, and he stopped to stare at the house again.

“I felt every minute of it,” he whispered. “Even in my bindings, even when kept apart, I could feel it. The flames consuming you to the very core, tearing away at your very _skin._ The choking smoke that filled your corridors, the deafening crashes as the floors buckled and collapsed. I could feel your skeleton blacken and twist, flaking away as the char ran deep and all wore away with the embers. Even amidst my own persistent, unrelenting agony, _I still felt you._ ” His eyes dropped back down to the book in his hands as he added, “I can’t imagine he actually thought he could make a difference. Humans are such petty creatures. But rest assured, _he will be dealt with._ ”

A twitch from his face, from his fingers, like something was clawing for freedom from within. He shoved it back down as deep as he could, though it was far from as much as he would’ve liked. His eyes drifted back upwards, this time above the house to eye the full moon that had reached a position almost directly above it.

It matched one of the drawings on the pages.

“But first, I need you. Your security. Your second chance…”

His fingertips brushed along the text and drawings on the pages, leaving an inscripted blue-green glow in their wake. Similarly, a blue light sparked along the ground before him, suddenly streaking around the property in a blue line that was tightly coiled in green light. It finally came to a stop when end met beginning in a giant circle around the ruins, and one by one twelve roman numerals appeared just along the circle’s interior.

“My blood in your walls.”

A long line ran from the center of the circle until it reached the very end, widening out into a more ornate hand. All he could see from his position was the glow that illuminated the darkness in the doorway.

“My footsteps where we once tread.”

A second line ran out similarly, stopping only halfway. Both were on the twelve mark.

“Voices of past, echoing forever in your ether.”

The hands began to tick counterclockwise, slowly at first but gradually starting to pick up speed. Faster and faster until they were spinning in a near-blur.

“Out of time. Out of place.”

Shimmers of blue and green rose from the clock around the ruins as the wind picked up. The figure remained unphased.

“The ages will not touch you. The damage will not remain.”

Small chunks of wood and stone and brick began to rise, rapidly coming together and fusing into form.

“As you have sheltered me in my dying hour, so now I become your savior.”

Within the frame of crumbled and torn-down walls, the bricks began to stack, one by one, light seeping between the cracks to weld them all back together.

“I will restore you to glory.”

The wood of the doors and windows slowly wedged back into place, and where the wood was missing, light ran in the shape of the pieces. When they dimmed, the piece was set in fresh and painted, as good as new.

“I will restore your life.”

One by one the shingles rose from within the building, flying up out and over the house to scale along as a protective layer on the roof.

“Let all pieces be rebuilt.”

Around him, he could hear voices: men and women, younger and older. Faint, whispering. Barely heard just over the howl of the wind. Numbers of them, alone and in pairs and in groups, there for a fleeting moment until they soon flickered away in the blink of an eye.

“Brick by brick.”

In his peripheral, he could see their figures around him, ghosts of projected memory, of time both seen and unseen, sewn into the depths of what was torn over and over again. There was horror, there was blood, but he didn't mind it. Didn’t bat an eye, didn’t even turn his head to look. He’d seen it all plenty of times before.

“Memory by memory.”

Until there were only two.

Their figures lingered as the clock started to slow. He could catch snatches of their words, make sense of them now.

_‘This place is enormous, Stiana!’_

_‘So it is.’ Pause. ‘I know it’s a long way from home-’_

_‘No, no. It’s completely fine. Home’s become nothing more than inhospitable anyway.’_

_‘That’s true but…’ A lingering pause. ‘You’re certain-’_

The figure closed his eyes as his name was said, switching his focus over to the howl of the wind as opposed to the conversation at hand. It was something unremembered, and something better _left_ unremembered. Far from the name he’d picked up last time, from the dozens of others he’d picked up over the course of time. His eyes opened again as he watched the text of the book for another moment before looking back up at the house-

He could feel the figures pass through him, walk on ahead in their curiosity, in their awe. And as close as they were, he couldn’t help but hear their conversation once again.

 _‘This is where we belong. Our future begins_ **_here._ ** _’_

The younger figure continued onward to the house, but the older stopped for a moment. Turned around to stare back at the gate-or him. He knew it was impossible, but the man-tall, pale, fair-haired and bearded-seemed to stare directly back at him with pale green eyes that were filled with hesitation and worry. It was enough to stop the younger in his tracks and turn around, calling to his brother.

Looking back at him.

And looking _right at him_ as well _._

With a grin.

Those bright green eyes lingered for a moment before they finally tore themselves away. The man called to his brother once more and adjusted the book clutched underneath his arms before he spun back around and headed on inside the house, disappearing from view.

The figure stood frozen for several long moments, staring, watching as the older man followed suit before swallowing and looking back down at his book.

“So this shattered mirror of our reality is repaired, let all that is broken and fragmented bind together again, fusing as one, forever unbroken.”

The light finally began to fade and he stared up at the mansion that towered before him. He let out a small sigh and closed the book, already feeling a wave of exhaustion as the final words of incantation passed his lips.

“For as you fall, I fall, but as I stand, you stand. And so the cycle continues.”

He could feel his body waver, the force within his mind finally starting to break free. No matter; he was without communication, with scarcely enough magic to even pull a rabbit from a hat, and hardly the energy for another hike. No, even without the benefit of full control, his host could do very little to stop him at this point.

Now all that was left to do was to tuck himself away and out of sight of that witch for as long as he possibly could.

His eyes drifted back up at the mansion and he stepped forward, struggling to maintain his strength and composure, anything to keep from stumbling.

His pride was still far from broken, after all.

With his final sentence, he sealed the spell, the final glimmers of light fading back into dark.

_“Forever out of time.”_

* * *

He could still hear the ringing as he got ready for bed that night.

He and the others had already parted ways, gone back home or to their own hotel rooms. After everything that happened, Ethan never really showed up-or at least as far as they could _remember._ And even once Jack awoke, he didn’t remember seeing... _anything._ He didn’t remember what happened that would cause his IV to be ripped out, or Signe coming into the room.

They _had_ checked the security cameras after enough insistence on behalf of concern for Jack’s safety.

But what they saw...

_“I suppose I can show you some of the footage of the hallway-” the security guard relented._

_“Good. That might be all we need,” Felix replied tensely, standing before the small wall of security cameras with the others. The screens cast an eerie glow over their huddle, illuminating a number of troubled and confused faces that stared back worriedly._

_The security guard reluctantly rewound to the point in time that no one could clearly remember, glancing back at them over his shoulder._

_“_ **_Again_ ** _, we don’t often show cam footage to patrons-”_

_“Yeah, well, this is a matter of security we might be well-acquainted with personally,” Mark assured. “We were kinda there the night our friend got hurt originally-so we just need to see if we can identify anyone for you guys.”_

_The guard hesitated for a moment but then nodded, hitting ‘play’ on the footage._

_There wasn’t any real sound, but they could see it._

_Their group, huddled in the hallway._

_And they watched that for a couple of minutes. Nothing seemed to be all too different._

_Until a pair of newcomers approached._

_Ethan, they could tell immediately. The second was a small woman, who Felix and Marzia identified as Guin. Both seemed well._

_Mark could feel the hair on his arms and neck start to stand on end as a chill swept over him. The ringing in his ears only seemed to get ever-louder._

**_Like a warning._ **

_Felix was the first to voice what they were all thinking._

_“I...don’t remember this,” he whispered._

_The footage continued, showing the group standing around talking to the two before they noticed a couple suited people approaching from down the hall. Guin made a gesture to excuse herself before heading away from the group to go speak with them._

_“Neither do I,” Robin seconded, a frown weighing heavily on his features._

_They watched a couple more words be exchanged before Ethan turned to Signe, and the two disappeared off into Jack’s room._

_Mark snuck a peek at Signe as Amy’s grip on his hand tightened. The Dane’s eyes were wide as saucers with alarm, her face having paled a shade or two._

_The group seemed to continue talking for a bit before Guin returned, looked around, then quickly tapped each of them before rushing into Jack’s room. Everyone in the group seemed to stop, standing there daze, not moving or speaking, just…_

_As if lost in a daydream._

_A few seconds later, Guin hurried back out and down the hallway again, about at the point that the group seemed to be rousing and shaking off their spell. They watched as she disappeared around the corner and the suited people weren’t too far behind._

_“I…” Signe began, but her voice was clearly shaken and the words quickly died on her lips. When she found her footing again, she continued weakly, “I don’t remember any of that.”_

_“Can you get some of the footage from in Jack’s room?” Tyler asked. He was holding Kathryn’s hand tightly-the two looked just as shaken. This clearly wasn’t sitting well with anybody, and Mark felt just a tinge of relief in spite of everything else that it wasn’t just him._

_The security guard looked almost as confused as the rest of them, but nodded and flipped the footage on another screen, then rewound it-_

_Static._

_It was nothing but static._

_And then one by one, each of the other screens seemed to follow en suite._

_The group exchanged glances, but the message between them needed no words. Felix gave a half-reassuring pat to the guard’s shoulder before they filed out of the security office-_

_They couldn’t leave that room fast enough._

_It was several seconds before anyone really said anything. Signe stood with her arms crossed tightly over her chest, as if fighting off shivers from chilled air. Mark meanwhile pulled the cell from his pocket-Ethan’s, they’d established-and stared at it, fumbling with it a little with his free hand. It was a relatively cheap little thing, a temp phone for Ethan to use while overseas as American phones would get no signal where they were._

_This explained a few things._

_But it only seemed to bring more questions along with it._

_“So that was Ethan,” Amy murmured._

_“That was Ethan, yeah,” Mark murmured in confirmation, frowning as he continued to fidget idly with the phone._

_“We need to get_ _Seán_ _out of this hospital,” Signe finally spoke up, her voice quiet and anxious._

_Marzia nodded. “I agree.” She looked over at Felix. “There’s another hospital just across town-”_

_“Maybe he’s ready to go home?” Robin suggested. “If there was a doctor that could possibly make housecalls…”_

_“I’m not sure the doctors are ready to fully release him yet. I mean, I don’t really think it’s our choice to make but...” Felix let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, no, I think Marzia might be right. It might just be better to have him transferred to a different hospital.”_

_“That’d probably be safer anyway,” Tyler murmured._

_“Yeah, the hospital does have security, at least,” Kathryn agreed._

_“Except we saw how much good security can do up against something like that,” Robin pointed out. “Even when the people are actually_ **_vigilant_ ** _to weird things, like we kind of were-how do you even defend against something like that? And...how do you even guard against something you can’t remember?”_

_A silence settled over the group._

_They never really did come up with an answer._

Mark’s brows furrowed at the memory. He could feel a mild headache coming on, though he wasn’t entirely sure if it was caused from the fading adrenaline of the day or the constant ringing in his ears. He rubbed his eyes but only felt somewhat sleepy-a cast glance at the clock on his computer told him just how late it was.

Almost five AM.

In spite of all of his apprehensions, he _really_ needed to get some rest.

He looked back at Amy; she’d gone to bed a little while ago. After they discussed what was going on, what they would or even _could_ possibly do.

Although the discussion turned out no real answers.

He could feel another pang from his headache, as if it were encouraging the idea of rest. He let a soft sigh slip through his lips as he finally gave in, shutting his laptop and setting it aside. He got up from the small table and changed out of his daywear, heading into the bathroom to brush his teeth-

A flicker in the mirror.

He wasn’t quite sure how to describe it necessarily, just that it was almost like a sort of-

He blinked hard a couple times, frowning and leaning forward a little bit to study the reflection.

It was as if there was almost a glitch in his vision, something seemed to crack in his sight and for a split-second he could’ve sworn he saw a trail left by the movements of his own reflection.

But there was nothing.

Nothing too strange, nothing to be alarmed about.

Everything was pretty dark, but that’s how the rest of his surroundings were at the moment.

Everything was…

Normal…

He blinked hard a few more times before shaking his head and wrapping up his nighttime routine, then settling in for bed. He closed his eyes and felt himself starting to drift sooner than he expected, sinking into darkness as the ringing came from all sides, enveloping all else.

“ _If it was a snake, it would’ve bit you.”_

His eyes immediately snapped open and he sat up so quickly he could sense Amy stir next to him, though not rise. He looked around in alarm, though saw no one.

 _“I’m actually_ **_surprised_ ** _you weren’t. He must’ve been looking for an easier target.”_

“Who’s there?!” Mark hissed, quickly grabbing his glasses from the nightstand and peering through the darkness. He could still hear the voice so clearly, but couldn’t fully determine where it was coming from. A quick scan of the room revealed nothing but deep looming shadows, briefly broken and warped by the lights of passing cars peeking through the curtains.

 _“So here’s a suggestion: why don’t you do us both a favor next time and maybe_ **_listen_ ** _to me when I’m trying to warn you? Or else I might have to take a more_ **_direct_ ** _approach.”_

“Who the _fuck_ is there? Come out!”

“Mark?”

Amy’s voice cut through everything else, and suddenly he felt his eyes open again and he sat up to look around. The ominous voice was now gone. The _pitch_ itself was gone, leaving nothing in its wake besides an eerie, off-putting feeling that something was looming nearby, watching their every move. Still though-still, it wasn’t real. _A dream,_ he realized. It was all just a dream. Sleep paralysis, maybe, but still all just a dream.

“Mark?” Amy mumbled next to him, eyes sliding open just a bit to look up at him curiously. “Is everything okay? You were talking in your sleep...”

Still, Mark wasn’t entirely consoled by the sudden feeling, staring at her for a moment before tearing his eyes away.

“Just…” He shook his head slightly. “Yeah, I think I might’ve just been having a nightmare. Sorry.” He offered her a tiny smile, even if it didn’t completely reach his eyes.

Amy continued to eye him for a moment, even in the haze of recent waking, but finally seemed to let out a small sigh and shifted to get a bit more comfortable. “You sure? I know what happened earlier today has you a little anxious. If you need to talk about it a bit more or anything…”

“No...no,” Mark replied. He hesitated before adding, “...Well maybe a little bit. But that can wait a bit until morning.”

Amy nodded sleepily and closed her eyes again, but not before he felt the warmth of her hand on his, felt her give his hand a squeeze of empathy and reassurance.

“For what it’s worth, you’re not crazy to be worried, you know? And you don’t have to put up any fronts...” she murmured. “I saw a little bit from that night and a little bit from earlier today. And...I’m kinda scared, too…”

With those words, Mark could feel his insides twist. Even if they were supposed to be words of reassurance…

God, if something _was_ wrong, if they were in any kind of danger, what could he even _do_ about it?

What if what just happened wasn’t just a dream? After all, this wasn’t even the first time. Except-

Except this was the most real it’d ever been.

What if there really was something wrong with him?

What if he was losing his mind or-possibly even worse-what if it was something supernatural-

What if he couldn’t even trust himself?

“So you know, you’re not alone.”

He couldn’t speak for a moment.

Couldn’t even come up with any words to even reassure-

Because what if that reassurance was all just a lie?

“I’ll always stand by you.”

The last words were on a yawn, and sleep seemed to pull her quickly back under before he could even really form a response. Mark swallowed hard as he watched her for a long moment, unable to stop the helpless feeling from overcoming him. If there was anything supernatural wrong with him, then he was _completely_ out of his depth.

What should he do?

What _could_ he do?

What…?

His fingers curled around her hand as well, sucking in a breath as he laid back. He took a few more deep breaths in an attempt to quell the sudden rising panic at the prospects of the situation-losing his head wouldn’t get anyone anywhere.

There _wasn’t_ anything wrong with him.

There _couldn’t_ be anything wrong with him.

And if there was, it was likely just...trauma.

PTSD, that sort of stuff. Normal issues. Like what Mathew was going through.

Just. Normal.

...But in the odd case that it was anything but.

If it _ever_ came to that, he would fight it. For as long as he had to fight it, and then some.

And he’d let no harm come to Amy and the others.

Before he felt himself dragged down into slumber, he promised himself that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Okay so I might've goofed. I thought I was gonna have this story wrapped with this chapter? Uh-I figured ultimately that the end result was _way_ too long for one go. And also if I were to throw the actual epilogue material into here, I didn't think it'd be getting quite the attention it really deserved. That said, I'm posting this chapter up now and the epilogue will probably follow not too long after. It still needs to be revised-but I think mostly just one part to it, and then it'll be good to go. But yeah! This is the last official chapter to Devil's Deal, and then we got an epilogue and we can call this story wrapped. There may or may not be a sequel-but we do have Lost Memories in the meantime. Also, I've mentioned some of you guys mentioning something about wanting to start some kind of hangout or something down in the comments? You all seem like pretty cool people to hang out with, so I'm totally down for that. Uh-if anyone is perhaps willing to help me figure out how PMs or anything to that effect work on this site, please let me know! In the meantime-damn. We've come so far with this, and I can't thank you all enough for the fanworks, the encouragement, the comments, theories and conversations and so on. This couldn't have been done without all of you, but I'll try and save most of the sap for the upcoming wrap. I hope not to disappoint with it, so I'll hopefully have it up soon, after some thorough editing and revision! Until then~

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Let's Talk About Haunted_Moonlight's "Devil's Deal"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15583461) by [zeeyaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeeyaa/pseuds/zeeyaa)




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